<span>As it was expected, at the end of the first week of July, Turkish scrap market is seeing a rise in imports. Whereas early this week only few deals were been made with Ukrainian suppliers, today four more contracts have been signed with American scrap collectors and two more – with European ones. <br> The upturn in purchases by Turkish steelmakers is related to gradually improving demand for rebar in the domestic market and resumption of square billet shipments from North Africa and the Middle East. Depleted stocks also contribute to the growth in business activity. <br> In early June contracts for Ukrainian A3 scrap were signed at $450-455/t C&F, while exporters from other Azov-Black Sea countries could not attract buyers with their offers. <br> <br> Taking into account current prices in the domestic market of Russia and higher freight rates, Russian A3 scrap will be quoted to Turkish producers by $5-10/t higher than Ukrainian material. Romanian HMS 1&2 (80:20) is now priced by $5/t higher than Russian scrap and by $10-15/t higher than Ukrainian one. Romanian traders are insisting on a $5-10/t increase in export scrap quotations from the contracts signed in late June, since prices for local material have gone up there by $10/t in July amid strong demand from mills. <br> Meanwhile, American scrap collectors have returned to the global market after the holidays and resumed cooperation with the importers. In particular, one of Turkish steelmakers purchased a mixed batch of 30,000 t of HMS 1&2 (80:20) and 10,000 t of shredded scrap at $469/t C&F and $474/t C&F respectively, the deals being equal to nominal levels of the past week. <br> The rest of the contracts have been signed at almost similar prices. So, a batch of HMS 1&2 (80:20) has been booked at $468/t C&F, that of HMS 1&2 (80:20) and P&S (35,000 t and 5,000 t) – at $473/t C&F. The fourth deal for a mixed batch of HMS 1&2 (80:20), shredded scrap and P&S scrap has been closed at $468/t C&F, $473/t C&F and $478/t C&F respectively. <br> Exporters from the EU have also managed to cooperate with Turkish customers. In particular, an 18,000-tonne batch of HMS 1&2 (80:20) has been sold at $435/t C&F. The second mixed lot of 27,000 t of HMS 1&2 (75:25), 3,000 t of shredded scrap and 3,000 t of P&S material has been booked at $448/t C&F. Market players say such low prices for European scrap are explained by poor quality of the material, whereas offers from most of suppliers in the region are $5-10/t higher. <br> More transactions are expected in Turkey during the next week, which will enable scrap traders to start pushing export prices up. Such moves will be first of all taken by the suppliers from the east coast ports of the USA, who currently does not have big amounts of the material available for sale in view of stable buyer activity within the country. <br> ( Source: <a href="http://www.metalexpert-group.com/"><span><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">www.metalexpert-group.com</font></span></a> )</span>