The British light iron market was up ?5 ($6.80) per tonne over the week to Friday December 18 on stronger export markets into deep-sea destinations, such as Turkey, and tight domestic availability due to a fall in scrap generation from lockdown measures to contain Covid-19, trade sources told Fastmarkets.
In the British market, where scrap generation has fallen by an estimated 40% this year while scrap arisings fell in line with end-user consumption in steel-consuming sectors such as automotive and construction, most of its scrap supply is exported. On average around 7 million tonnes of some 9 million tonnes per year generated is exported, mostly to Turkey, the Indian sub-continent and Spain, Fastmarkets understands.European steel scrap export prices into Turkey have been increasing steadily since the start of November, with prices up by around $40 per tonne since Friday December 11 and more than $150 per tonne since November...