Expectations for the Turkish ferrous scrap market widened between merchants and Turkish mills on Thursday, revealing a higher midpoint over the previous day.
US and Baltic offers clambered over the $230/mt mark, according to several Turkey-based agents for scrap sellers.
"I'm hearing that US offers are at $230/mt plus -- maybe $233-$234/mt," said one of the agents. "It feels like the US market is bullish."
The second agent agreed, saying that similar offers were coming from premium-quality Baltic sellers. He added that the direction of the market would now be dependent on European exporters and what level they would indicate to the Turkish market.
Domestic European settlements for August saw some upside in a range of Eur5-10/mt, making it unlikely that yards would accept any decrease in the wider market.
Shortness of material remained a driving factor, according to a Baltic merchant.
"The last increase was driven buy a shortage in supply and yards have still not fully recovered," he said.
Good support remained from Asian prices, according to a third scrap agent.
"Expectations seem to be that Turkish buyers need to restock on both scrap and rebar," he said. "But demand for finished products in the Us is down. There's lots of factors at the moment for the price, we're still waiting to see which way it plays out."
This was weighted against bearish motions from Turkish buyers, likely based on the poor strength of their domestic finished products market. A buyer said that mills were unwilling to pay higher than $220/mt today, and reported hearing a weaker sale from a premium merchant. Also mentioned was a potential sale from a Baltic merchant, but no further information could be found to flesh out the trades.
Despite bearish pressure, the buyer put the market $224-$228/mt Thursday.
S&P Global Platts assessed HMS I/II 80:20 at $230/mt, up $2/mt from Wednesday, reflecting a midpoint between premium-quality 80:20 offers and the highest 'bid' given by a buyer.
