Prices in the market for inter-merchant light iron scrap in the UK softened over the week to Friday October 9 after a steady run since September 11, industry sources have told Fastmarkets.
Weaker conditions in the European steel scrap export markets to Turkey and the Indian subcontinent have pulled British domestic offer prices downward, they said.
Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for
steel scrap 5C, loose old light, domestic, delivered inter-merchant, UK, was ?95-105 ($123-136) per tonne on Friday, only ?5 per tonne below the year-to-date high.
UK trade sources said that in the past week there has been a drop-off in export demand from key deep-sea destination Turkey, which typically influences the trend in steel scrap import prices to the Indian subcontinent.
The drop in Turkish demand was expected to persist through the rest of October, although Turkish sources reckoned that steel mills in the country may return to purchasing activity sooner than predicted.
"Several UK exporters are saying...