Prices are heading higher on the ferrous scrap market in Germany. After a few local steel producers made slight upward adjustments to their purchase prices in January, scrap prices rose across the board in February. This increase was driven by the ongoing tight material availability. Arisings of old and new ferrous scrap metals remain flat at reduced levels, recyclers say. At the same time, brisk demand from Turkish importers in the first half of the month led to an uptick in the tonnages sent to export ports.
Steel scrap traders were rather surprised by the price mark-up in February. As of late January, they had been expecting prices to be stable or slightly lower. But in the middle of the first week of February, the deep-sea export business with Turkey really took off. Turkish buyers were aiming to restock their inventories and were willing to pay higher prices for scrap.
Market participants could only speculate about the reasons for this upswing. Some traders believe Turkey’s increased interest in imports is due to mills stocking up in preparation for Ramadan. The Muslim holy month is expected to begin on 28 February this year.
But others believe there is definitely a "Trump effect". As the US president announced tariffs on imports of steel products, it is expected that production and prices in the USA will rise, resulting in a reduction in US scrap exports. Turkey would therefore have to ramp up its scrap purchasing in Europe, EUWID was told.
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