Turkish mills, who have been pressuring scrap prices for a while, have managed to register lower scrap values on fresh US-origin bookings.

Two deals from the US done this week were heard in the market on Thursday. US suppliers, seeking $425/tonne cfr Turkey and above, have been forced to decrease their prices amid unfavourable market conditions.

A southern Turkish mill bought HMS 1&2 80:20 at $422/t cfr for early-March shipment, while a Marmara mill bought the same grade at $421/t and shredded at $441/t cfr.

Although an EU-origin deal at $415/t cfr is also being circulated, this was concluded on 26 January, as previously reported by Kallanish.

Some market participants were confused about prices due to the higher-priced UK-origin deal reported a day earlier. However, the US deal prices correspond exactly to Kallanish’s assessed levels. Normalising the UK-origin shredded and bonus prices to HMS 1&2 80:20 by deducting $20/t would have been inaccurate due to the additional premiums arising from the freight rate and cargo composition.

On Thursday, some producers, inquiring about March-shipment cargoes, were still in talks with scrap suppliers. Although demand cannot be deemed as being strong, Kallanish expects to hear some more bookings this week.

Meanwhile, following the US Federal Reserve chair’s statement that he wants to see more positive data before easing policy restraints, the euro continued to weaken to 1.082 against the dollar, supporting Turkish mills' lower price expectations for scrap.