During the past week, demand in the local Turkish hot rolled coil (HRC) market has continued to improve, while rolling mills and traders have increased their purchases.
Coated flat steel producers have stepped up their HRC purchases amid increased export sales, while traders have continued to place new orders with Turkish HRC producers to increase their inventories given the tightness of supply in the spot market.
Despite the softening in iron ore quotations, Turkish steel producers are expected to raise their HRC prices further in the short term amid the ongoing upward movement of coal and scrap quotations and due to last week's rise seen in pig iron and slab prices which was caused by the limited supply in the CIS region. Additionally, Turkish HRC mills' accelerated export sales are also providing an opportunity for a price increase. In the current week, domestic producers' HRC quotations in Turkey have remained unchanged at $540-550/mt ex-works.
Meanwhile, product availability in the Turkish HRC spot market has remained tight over the past week, while it is reported that traders are also planning a price rise in line with the upward revision in producers' offers. However, having increased their HRC prices last week, traders have just been observing the market during the past week and have kept their offers stable.
The domestic sales prices of traders for local and imported hot rolled flat steel products in the Eregli and Gebze regions of Turkey are as follows:
Product | Price ($/mt) | |
Eregli | Gebze | |
2-12 mm HRC | 550-560 | 560-580 |
1.5 mm HRS | 590-600 | 605-625 |
2-12 mm HRC (for large tonnages) | 540-550 | |
3-12 mm HR P&O | 600-610 | 620-650 |