The political turmoil in MENA nations has impacted the scrap market. Turkish buying has relapsed over the last 2 weeks since the demand for finished is sulking in this region.
Most of the mills have replenished their stocks during March at the same time they are finding it onerous to sell finished products. This has slowed down further procurement of scrap.
The political uncertainty in MENA nations being the prime target market for Turkish material has enhanced uncertainty about finished demand leading to a grim prospect.
In this rather lackluster milieu scrap traders are resisting any major reduction or discount in their offers as it is unlikely to fetch demand. They expect buying to pick up once the stock levels fall.
The import levels at Turkish shores have slumped by USD 5 per tonne touching USD 465 per tonne to USD 470 per tonne from USD 470 per tonne to USD 475 per tonne a week before of US origin scrap.
European traders who are heavily dependent on Turkey are getting increasingly nervous with the sudden sluggishness and it is learnt that they are offering at levels of USD 450 per tonne to USD 455 per tonne CNF a climb down of nearly USD 5 per tonne to USD 10 per tonne since mid-March.
With the ramifications of Japanese Tsunami still to hit the international scrap market a lot of activity is expected in the coming weeks. However since bulk of the Japanese scrap finds its way into China it is unlikely to make much difference in this region.
Mills in Turkey will open for buying in early April in the regular course to meet April production needs. However the prices are not expected to change as the traders are finding it difficult to maintain the current levels owing to slump in finished demand from MENA nations. Some discount might be admissible to grab the orders in the run up. Hence it is expected that the scrap market would continue at mollified levels without major hike in the coming weeks.
(Source: www.steelguru.com )