Raw material prices globally remained under pressure last week following the announcement by the US authorities to impose a 25% tariff on imports from Europe, Canada and Mexico. This has further confirmed that the near future of the market will be dominated by trade issues and increasing barriers.

The iron ore price continues to remain at levels below $65/tonne cfr Qingdao, almost $15/t below the peak registered this year in the first quarter. Last year at the beginning of June the iron ore price was fluctuating around levels of $55/t cfr Qingdao. In the middle of that month however the market started to pick up again and recovered around $20/t over the next eight weeks. This year the outlook for Q3 is for the market to remain stable at the current levels. The latest recovery of Chinese prices however could well ease the pressure on the iron ore market during the coming weeks.

Meanwhile scrap prices in Turkey last week fell to the lowest point since beginning of December 2017. Following the latest correction, the market is now at $340/t cfr Turkey for HMS 1/2. It is considered that the persistent difficulty for Turkish mills in finding suitable export markets for their production is set to continue weighing on the scrap price. Scrap values have lost some $40/t since March this year and further corrections are not excluded going into Q3.