The daily Davis Index for Turkish imports of US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) slipped by $0.50/mt to $464/mt cfr on Friday on a new booking from the Baltic region.
An Iskenderun-based integrated steel mill purchased 28,000mt of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $460/mt cfr and 7,000mt of bonus material at $470/mt cfr from a Latvian supplier on Mar 5.
US exporters have stayed absent from the bulk market to Turkey as they wait for the US domestic markets to settle. Mills in the US have kicked off March with increases of $50-70/gt in Detroit, while in other regions mills have attempted to secure lower increases.
With Turkish mills bidding for material in a $460-465/mt cfr range, suppliers have looked to other markets. A Venezuelan cargo was sold to Italy at $465/mt cfr for HMS 1&2 (80:20), which normalizes to around $470/mt cfr Turkey.
US West Coast and Australian bulk shippers have recorded strong sales to Vietnam, which booked three cargoes from the US and one from Australia at shredded scrap price levels of $465-477/mt cfr. The two most recent deals concluded this week, were booked at $474/mt and $477/mt cfr.
For shippers to Turkey, the short sea market has been fairly active from the Azov-Black Sea basin. Romanian-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) traded at $430-440/mt cfr during the week and Turkish mills booked more than 30,000mt in small vessels over the past week.
Daily rebar export prices in Turkey were flat at $645-650/mt fob on Friday, while daily domestic spot rebar prices increased by TRY10-50/mt ($1-7/mt) to TRY5,630-5,700/mt ex-works, including 18pc VAT on Friday.
Icdas raised its local rebar prices by TRY20/mt to TRY5,690/mt ex-works Biga and TRY5,770/mt ex-works Istanbul (prices include 18pc VAT).
($1=TRY7.53)