Last week, demand in the Turkish domestic flat steel market increased for the third week in a row, reaching medium levels though still remaining below the desired levels. In the meantime, while traders' flat steel spot prices have remained unchanged, producers' discounts on listed prices, which were about $30-40/mt previously, have declined to $10-20/mt last week.
On the other hand, Turkish flat steel producers now seem to be content with their order books for August production and some producers have already started accepting orders for September rolling. While the mood has improved somewhat in the spot market, contractual demand coming from the main flat steel-using industries is still sluggish. In line with production cuts in the main flat steel consuming sectors, particularly in automotive, upstream industries and steel service centers have been unable to deplete their inventories built in line with previous contractual demand levels. Thus, these buyers have not started concluding new flat steel purchases yet. The general expectation in the market is that mainstream flat steel demand is unlikely to reach desired levels, unless demand coming from the main flat steel-using industries revives.
Currently, Turkish flat steel producers hot rolled coil (HRC) prices are standing at $625-645/mt, while their cold rolled coil (CRC) prices are at $740-760/mt, hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil offers are at $745-765/mt and their pre-painted galvanized iron (PPGI) prices are standing in the range of $920-940/mt, all ex-works.