Market sources state that Turkish mills' local offers for prime quality 304/2B stainless steel cold rolled coil (CRC) of 2.0 mm thickness for April production have remained stable over the past week at $2,450/mt ex-works, for April deliveries. However, Turkish producers are still willing to offer discounts of around $50-60/mt depending on tonnages. In the same period, Turkish traders' local stainless steel offers in the spot market have been unchanged at approximately $2,500-2,800/mt ex-warehouse, for advance payments. Moreover, traders state that collection of payments is continuing in the Turkish stainless steel market, while cash flow has slowed down significantly with the Turkish lira losing strength against the US dollar, causing serious problems for both buyers and sellers.
On the other hand, according to market sources, offers from Turkey to the export markets for the same stainless products have remained unchanged week on week in the range of $2,250-2,300/mt ex-works. Prime quality stainless steel export offers from Europe to Turkey have remained stable at $2,450-2,500/mt CFR, while second quality stainless steel export offers from Europe to the same destination are currently in the range of $1,950-2,050/mt CFR. Buyers in Turkey want to focus on ex-Europe second quality products and to conclude purchases of large tonnages, but it is hard to find available tonnages due to the tightness of supply in the market.
Meanwhile, offers for prime quality 304/2B stainless steel cold rolled coil (CRC) of 2.0 mm thickness from China and Taiwan to the Turkish market have declined by $50/mt on the lower end over the past week to $2,050-2,300/mt CIF Izmit. Despite the price reduction, Turkish buyers have started to adopt a cautious stance in their purchases, following the provisional antidumping duties imposed by the European Commission on stainless cold rolled steel imports from China and Taiwan. Turkish producers and traders think that they will gain an advantage in the stainless steel export markets following this announcement, as European buyers are expected to focus on imports of Turkish stainless steel.
The cash and settlement nickel price at the London Metal Exchange (LME) has trended downwards since March 19, decreasing by $15/mt and closing the day at $13,615/mt on March 26.