Turkey iron trade was halted on Monday

Turkey's iron trade was halted on Monday due to a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred near the city of Gaziantep, one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded in Turkey.

Due to the fact that the event is very recent, it seems impossible to clearly assess the impact of the earthquake on the steel market.

Sources in Turkey said that the factories in Iskenderun, hit by the earthquake, were not seriously damaged, but that the companies were trying to locate some of their unidentified employees. In the meantime, it was reported that the Iskenderun port also stopped operations after it was damaged.

Although according to some sources the factories seem to be undamaged, the availability of trucks will be a problem in the weeks following the earthquake, which means that the price of everything, especially scrap, will increase. Meanwhile, an international trader predicts that long-term disruptions are expected in exports from Turkey.

The country's situation was also being monitored by buyers in other important scrap importing regions. Indian participants were aiming to start booking for April, but the earthquake in Turkey prevented this. With shipments to Pakistan and Bangladesh disrupted due to financing issues, vendors will try to lower their scrap bids to secure their connections in India, sources on the subcontinent said.