Given the continuous improvements in the scrap market, which have contributed to the uptrend in the Turkish hot rolled coil (HRC) segment, local flat spot traders have marginally raised their offer prices. Apart from that, the current week's slightly stronger business activity has also boosted the market outlook. However, most traders are not optimistic that the recovery will be sustainable due to the long-term negative effects of financial issues in Turkey on demand.
“We recently increased our prices a little, while there has also been some movement on the demand side in the past few days, but it does not have much impact on the general market because demand is generally weak, and so our expectations still remain negative for the coming days,” a trader told SteelOrbis.
As a result, workable domestic hot rolled sheet prices have increased by $10/mt to $670-690/mt ex-warehouse from last week. According to market players, while small and medium-sized traders have offered at around $670-680/mt ex-warehouse, bigger traders are offering at roughly $685-690/mt ex-warehouse.
Similarly, in the cold rolled sheet category, a similar rise has been seen, with current offers settling at $770-785/mt ex-warehouse, up from $760-775/mt ex-warehouse last week.
Meanwhile, concerns about the future outlook and the somewhat stronger trade currently have encouraged a few small traders to be more aggressive and offer last week's lower prices instead of the current market levels. Accordingly, a few sellers are still offering hot rolled sheets and cold rolled sheets for $660-665/mt ex-warehouse and $760/mt ex-warehouse, respectively.