Last week Turkish scrap continued to remain under pressure. Mills in the country continue to face slow demand both domestically and in the export markets, forcing them to consider production stoppages in the coming weeks and months.

As purchases of scrap remained absent, the Kallanish index for HMS 1/2 80:20 slipped below $300/tonne cfr Turkey for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2017. The new correction took the level $5/t below the previous low registered this year in August, immediately after the US confirmed the doubling of the import tariffs for Turkish products to 50%.

Following the latest fall, Turkish scrap has lost some $45/t since the end of October and $85/t since the peak registered this year in mid-March.

Some sources are trying to remain positive in the current difficult market situation, but the outlook for Q1 remains bleak.

“Mills’ scrap stocks are getting to a critical level, so they will have to buy soon,” says a European scrap merchant, hoping that this would at least stop the price downtrend for scrap. However, with demand for Turkish rebar so thin in both domestic and export markets, mills currently look more likely to reduce production significantly than to cave in to scrap suppliers’ demands.