In the Turkish flat steel market, the recent increase in activity due to scrap price hikes and traders' inventory replenishments has continued to be observed this week. While flat steel import offers to Turkey for January production material have also increased this week, demand is likely to slow down due to the approaching holidays.
Turkish flat steel producers have continued to raise their domestic offers, in line with increases both in demand and in scrap prices. Turkish integrated steelmaker Erdemir continues to focus on cold rolled and galvanized flat steel offers. The producer is maintaining its base price for hot rolled flat steel products at the level of $660/mt, while it is offering 1-1.5 mm cold rolled flat products at the price range of $790-800/mt.
Another domestic flat steel producer Çolakoğlu Metalurji has pushed up its HRC offers from $670/mt at the beginning of the current week to $680/mt toward the end of the week.
This week, Russian steel producers including MMK and Severstal also revealed their flat steel offers to Turkey. MMK's HRC offers to Turkey are currently standing at $665/mt CFR, while its CRC offers are at $775/mt CFR. Meanwhile, Severstal is offering HRC to Turkey at $650/mt CFR, and its CRC offers are standing at the level of $810/mt CFR, both for January production material and March shipments. Both steelmakers' flat steel offers to Turkey indicate an increase of $30-40/mt as compared to last month.
In the Turkish spot market, traders have maintained their previous price levels due to the strong trend observed in producers' prices. Spot market prices of 2 mm HRC stand in the range of $660-680/mt, while price levels of CRC stand generally at $790-820/mt.