Analysis
July 24, 2026
Export scrap market for Turkey springs back
Written by Stephen Miller
The export market for scrap for Turkey has come back to life over the last week.
The last time SMU reported on the export market on July 6, there was very limited and cautious activity by Turkish steelmakers. This activity has picked up.
During this week, there have been three cargoes sold from the US for September loading. These were all priced at $375-76 per metric ton (mt) CFR for HMS 80/20 and an additional premium of $20/mt for shredded and bonus.
Steel mills in Turkey abandoned their pursuit of cheaper prices for now and decided to accept offers slightly above their preferred levels. In Northern Europe and the UK, the recent prices are $368-370/mt for HMS, but volumes bought there were limited.
Market outreach
SMU heard from a source in Turkey who said there is still a good bit of uncertainty in the market. He believes sellers decided to book cargoes at these prices levels. This is despite the lack of significant upward movement because they feel this modest recovery may be short-lived.
Another trader based in Southern Europe who sells into Turkey told SMU sellers have decided to sell what they needed to. Now they’re trying to build back some inventory.
We also spoke to a scrap exporter who ships deep-sea transatlantic cargoes to Turkey to see where he thinks the market is heading.
He said prices are “definitely 100% going up!” The exporter added that “nobody has scrap and the Iran war was back into full force.” He believes all mills need scrap.
The first source supported this notion. He said further sales from Northern Europe and the Baltic may be difficult to source going into August as many sellers are on holiday.
Another problem for Northern European shippers is the water levels on rivers feeding scrap export terminals are critically low. This has caused some northbound cargoes to be split into multiple barges. As a result, this has increased freight costs. On some rivers, commercial barging has been completely halted, according to recent reports.
