Turkish steel producers extended their silence in the deep-sea scrap import markets amid weakening demand for finished long steel products, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday June 3.
The most recent deep-sea trade was concluded at the end of last week, when a steel mill in the Marmara region booked a US cargo, comprising HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $503 per tonne and shredded scrap at $513 per tonne cfr.
Since then, steel mills in Turkey have stayed away from deep-sea scrap purchases because they have struggled to find buyers for their finished long steel goods.
The Turkish long steel export market has been quiet for the past seven days due to reduced demand from Southeast Asia, while the domestic long steel market has also been weak.
"Steel mills in Turkey are largely staying away from scrap purchases. They are mostly focused on finished long steel sales [so] they will not buy any scrap until they sell some rebar," a Turkish mill source said.
As a result of lack of fresh trading activity, Fastmarkets' daily scrap indices remained unchanged on Thursday June 3.
The daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey remained at $495.27 per tonne on Thursday.
And the daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), US origin, cfr Turkey was $501.22 per tonne on June 3, also flat day on day, leaving the premium for US material over European scrap at $5.95 per tonne.