In the past week, demand in the local Turkish hot rolled coil (HRC) spot market has remained at medium levels, just like in the previous week, while domestic prices have softened by $10/mt for HRC and by $30/mt for hot rolled pickled and oiled (HR P&O) materials over the past week. Market sources state that local prices have continued to be influenced by the low-priced Chinese materials which entered the Turkish spot market in early October, while this declining trend will likely continue for a while, raising concerns over prices in the local market.
On the other hand, demand received by Turkish HRC producers is still weak. Meanwhile, Turkish mills' HRC prices are now standing at $550-560/mt ex-works for December-January outputs, decreasing by $25 over the past week, while buyers expect the offers to decline further.
The domestic sales prices of traders for local and imported hot rolled flat steel products in the Eregli and Gebze regions of Turkey are as follows:
Product | Price ($/mt) | |
Eregli | Gebze | |
2-12 mm HRC | 580-595 | 585-600 |
2-12 mm HRC (for large volume sales) | 610-625 | 615-630 |
1.5 mm HRS | 570-585 | |
3-12 mm HR P&O | 610-620 | 620-630 |
The above prices are ex-warehouse and for advance payments, exclusive of 18 percent VAT.