A decline has been observed in Turkey's stainless flat steel import activity from Taiwan and China, both important sources of imported stainless steel for the country, after Turkey announced on October 30 an increase in its duty on stainless cold rolled flat product imports. The data for Turkey's stainless flat steel imports from November on are expected to indicate a significant drop.
Meanwhile, European stainless steel offers to Turkey such as from Germany, Italy, Finland and Belgium and local offers on ex-works basis have gained an advantage after the increase in import duty. European offers on CIF basis and local ex-works offers for prime quality 304/2B stainless steel cold rolled coil (CRC) of 2.0 mm thickness are ranging at $2,500-2,550/mt, while Taiwanese and Chinese offers on CIF basis to Turkey for the same products are $100-150/mt below this range. Stainless steel traders and stockists in the local market have reduced their purchases given the approach of the New Year, and so activity in the market is expected to be slack until January.
Turkey's stainless flat steel imports in the first 10 months of this year depending on countries and on monthly basis can be viewed in the chart below:
Weekly price movements of different steel products in major markets can be viewed comparatively in the SteelOrbis Historical Steel Prices section. Market trends can thus be seen more clearly, while desired charts can be created and used in reports or presentations.