Posted on 18 Feb 2025
Turkish mills managed to keep pressure on scrap prices last year thanks to a higher volume of alternative billet and slab imports, SteelWise director Emrah Uğursal said at Kallanish Steel Scrap 2025 in Istanbul last week.
“Billet and slab become important scrap substitutes when scrap prices go crazy,” said Uğursal, and pointed out Turkey’s semis-scrap ratio rose to 39% in 2024, a historical high.
Uğursal noted that Turkey’s slab and billet imports rose to 4.1 million tonnes and 3.8mt respectively in 2024. These were 2.8mt and 3.1mt respectively in 2023.
Indonesia and Malaysia have become important billet suppliers to Turkey, Uğursal observed, as the dominance of suppliers from Russia and Ukraine has been replaced by Southeast Asian players. Imports from Malaysia, with which Turkey has an FTA, were five times higher on year.
Regarding prices, Uğursal noted that the 2024 average price spread between scrap and Southeast Asian billet imports stood at $140/tonne, and scrap and CIS billet imports stood at $125/t. However, it came down to as low as $105/t.
“A scrap-billet spread below these values makes billet imports more attractive for Turkish rebar producers,” said Uğursal.
However, he also emphasised that, despite billet providing a competitive alternative at times, scrap continues to remain Turkey’s main raw material.
“Despite a more attractive price, billets are not always preferable against scrap due to longer delivery dates and Turkey’s product diversity. Most importantly, scrap is necessary for the efficient operation of a mill,” Uğursal noted.
He concluded that he is bullish about scrap prices in 2025.
Source:Kallanish
