During the past week, demand for domestic producers’ products in the local Turkish hot rolled coil (HRC) market has remained weak due to the strong fluctuations recorded in the Turkish lira-US dollar exchange rate and since buyers have continued to exert pressure on prices. Accordingly, Turkish flat steel mills have decreased their HRC prices by $10/mt week on week to $520-550/mt ex-works. Despite the downtrend of prices, buyers have continued to postpone their HRC bookings as they want to see the trend of HRC prices after the Chinese New Year holiday.
Meanwhile, demand in the local Turkish HRC spot market is still slack due to the economic and political uncertainties and the ongoing cash flow problems in Turkey. As a result, traders’ HRC and HR pickled and oiled coil prices have remained unchanged week on week.
The domestic sales prices of traders for local and imported hot rolled flat steel products in the Eregli and Gebze regions of Turkey are as follows:
| Product | Price ($/mt) | |
| Eregli | Gebze | |
| 2-12 mm HRC | 540-550 | 550-570 |
| 1.5 mm HRS | 580-590 | 595-615 |
| 2-12 mm HRC (for large tonnages) | 530-540 | |
| 3-12 mm HR P&O | 570-580 | 590-620 |