The daily Davis Index for Turkish imports of US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) rose by $6.90/mt to $426.90/mt cfr on Monday after a sale from the USA was reported.
An Iskenderun-based mill purchased HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $427/mt cfr, shredded scrap at $432/mt cfr, and bonus material at $437/mt cfr from the USA at the end of last week for May shipment.
Scrap suppliers received multiple inquiries from Turkish mills and are now hoping prices rise to $435-440/mt for HMS 1&2 (80:20) in their next few trades. With rebar offers above $650/mt fob Turkey, long product makers have metal margins that scrap exporters will attempt to retest with some aiming as high as $460-480/mt cfr as bookings for May progress.
Bulk prices into Asia also appear to have found a bottom with a cargo sale into Vietnam concluding at $442/mt cfr for shred, and a cargo sale of A3 out of eastern Russia concluding into South Korea at a price level of $425/mt cfr.
Market participants will continue to monitor the volumes of scrap shipping into China, which has averaged around 80,000mt per month in containers or small bulk since the country opened up to scrap imports earlier this year. These volumes are not enough to give it any real pricing power or cause any impact on the overall seaborne. Should China ramp up intake with each passing month, suppliers could be looking at a real destination for scrap by next year.
In Turkey’s domestic market, daily spot rebar prices rose by TRY150-200/mt ($18-24/mt) to TRY5,770-5,850/mt ex-works on Monday. Icdas raised its local rebar prices by TRY120/mt to TRY5,920/mt ex-works Biga and TRY6,000/mt ex-works Istanbul. All domestic prices include 18pc VAT.
In the export market, a large cargo of Turkish rebar was sold to Hong Kong at $672.50/mt cfr last week.
($1=TRY8.18)