Over the past week, Chinese flat steel offers to the export markets have moved upwards amid the ongoing upward movement of prices of scrap, iron ore and coils in the global markets. Accordingly, Russian and Ukrainian flat steel offers to Turkey have also increased. Russian hot rolled coil (HRC) offers to Turkey have increased by $10/mt on average to $435-450/mt CFR, while Ukrainian HRC offers to Turkey have risen by $20/mt on average to $435-445/mt CFR and ex-CIS cold rolled coil (CRC) offers to Turkey have moved up by $10/mt to $455-485/mt CFR, all week on week.
However, Turkish buyers have been concluding bookings from domestic producers instead of booking imported products with long lead times, since import flat steel offers have failed to ensure a competitive advantage due to Turkish producers’ pricing strategies. As a result, Turkish buyers continue to prefer to meet their immediate needs for flat steel products from their domestic market and their demand for ex-CIS flat steel is still weak.