Turkish steel mills ended the working week with a single deep-sea cargo amid limited rebar demand, especially in the export markets, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday June 25.
A steel mill in the Izmir region booked a United States-origin cargo comprising 10,000 tonnes of heavy melting scrap 1&2 (80:20) at $499 per tonne, 16,000 tonnes of shredded and 2,000 tonnes of bonus at $519 per tonne cfr on Thursday June 24.
This was the sole deep-sea deal since June 15, when two US cargoes were sold into Turkey at $500 per tonne and $501 per tonne cfr on HMS 1&2 (80:20) basis.
Steel mills in Turkey have been struggling to sell long steel products in export markets recently.
The mills lowered their export offers for rebar to $730-750 per tonne fob on an actual weight basis this week, compared with offers between $730 and $770 per tonne the previous week.
There were no significant bookings heard this week however, sources said.
Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for
steel reinforcing bar (rebar), export, fob main port Turkey was $730-750 per tonne on Thursday, narrowing downward from $730-765 per tonne the week before.
"The long steel export markets are generally weak because Turkish prices are too high for buyers, especially in Southeast Asia," one Turkish source said.
Offers for Turkish rebar were heard at more than $800 per tonne cfr Singapore on a theoretical weight basis, while the
same material was on offer at as low as $750 per tonne cfr from India.
As a result of the lack of fresh transactions, the daily scrap indices were stable at the end of the week.
Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey was calculated at $499.96 per tonne on Friday, unchanged day on day.
Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), US origin, cfr Turkey was $506.14 per tonne, also flat day on day, leaving the premium for US material over European scrap at $6.18 per tonne.