Trading activity in the local Turkish stainless steel market has remained at very low levels over the past week. Mainly due to the negative outlook for Turkey’s economy as well as the high volatility of the Turkish lira-US dollar exchange rate, buyers are concluding stainless steel purchases only in line with their needs. Hence, demand in the local Turkish stainless steel market has failed to revive. On the other hand, global nickel prices have mostly moved at around $12,000/mt since the first week of September.
Due to the weakness of demand, Turkish stainless steel producers’ domestic prices of 304 grade 2B stainless steel CRC are still at $2,600-2,700/mt ex-works, while their prices of 430 grade 2B stainless steel CRC are at $1,600-1,700/mt ex-works, both indicating sideways movement as compared to the levels in SteelOrbis’ report published last week.