The Week in One Page — Week of 13 June 2026
Bottom Line
Scrap prices into Turkey fell again and broke below $400 per tonne. Demand is weak, so prices look set to drift lower — price any Turkey-bound scrap now, don’t wait.
5 Things You Need to Know
- Turkish buyers paid about $398.50 per tonne for our main scrap grade — down $5.50, and below $400 for the first time.
- Turkey’s mills are barely buying. Construction demand is weak and some plan to pause production in July.
- Saudi Arabia’s biggest mill raised its scrap buying price a second time, to about $496 per tonne. That helps our Pakistan sales.
- We signed a new deal: 300 tonnes of copper-bearing compressor scrap from a new Latvian supplier, into Pakistan at $1,520 per tonne.
- European and US finished steel rose slightly as scrap fell — buyers are stocking up before new July import taxes.
Top 3 Actions This Week
- Price Turkey-bound scrap at $396–399 per tonne. WHEN: now. WHY: the $400 floor broke and demand is weak, so waiting risks selling lower later.
- Hold Pakistan and India offers firm near $417–421 per tonne. WHEN: this week. WHY: strong Saudi buying and reopened shipping routes support that level.
- Move the new Latvia deal forward — confirm inspection, pay the 20% deposit, send shipping instructions. WHEN: before ~20 June. WHY: the cargo must ship by 30 June.
Why Prices Moved (and Other Changes)
Turkey’s mills aren’t buying: construction is soft and rebar slipped to about $590 per tonne. With no buyers, scrap has nothing holding it up, and European sellers cut hardest to move material. Meanwhile Saudi mills can’t get their usual iron substitute because of Gulf shipping disruption, so they pay more for scrap — which supports our Pakistan and India prices. New EU and US import taxes from 1 July are also lifting finished-steel prices even as raw scrap falls. We added our first supplier outside Lithuania — a new Baltic supplier — through a new compressor scrap deal into Pakistan.
What to Watch Next Week
- The first real Turkey deal printed below $400 — it sets the new floor. One price service still shows a stale $406 the market has already left behind.
- Any July production cuts by Turkish mills — a cut could finally put a floor under scrap and rebar.
- A possible third Saudi price hike — more Saudi buying would lift our Pakistan and India prices.
Plain-English Glossary
- Scrap — recycled metal that mills melt to make new steel.
- HMS 80:20 — Heavy Melting Scrap (an 80/20 grade mix); the most common bulk scrap; our main product.
- Compressor scrap — scrapped fridge/AC compressors; valuable for their copper content.
- CFR — price includes shipping to the buyer’s port.
- Rebar — reinforcing bars used in construction; a gauge of building demand.
- Finished steel — rolled products like coil and rebar, sold to end users.
- Tonne — metric ton (1,000 kg); all prices here are per tonne.