Turkey-based flat steel re-rolling companies have attempted a rather sizeable price increase for coated and cold rolled steel over the past week. However, according to sources, the uptrend is mainly attributed to firmer HRC and scrap prices, as well as to a certain limitation of allocation in the domestic market, rather than to any considerable revival of demand.
In particular, Turkey’s local HRC prices have gone up in official offers from $550-560/mt ex-works base to $565-580/mt ex-works, while import HRC from China has been ranging within $490-500/mt CFR lately. In addition, according to market sources, Tezcan Galvaniz has failed to settle an agreement with the labor union which may result in production disruptions, which can affect the overall market supply. Another issue is the recent accident at Tosyali Toyo’s rolling line, which is expected to again impact the market balance, even if temporarily.
As a result, the current official local offers for 0.5 mm Z100 HDG are at $770-800/mt ex-works, up $20/mt over the past week, following a period of relative price stability. Export offers for the same HDG quality are at $740-750/mt FOB, up $10/mt over the same period. Turkey’s base PPGI prices for domestic and overseas customers are at $920-935/mt ex-works and $920-940/mt FOB, up $27.5/mt and $25/mt on average since last week.
In the CRC segment, local offers have increased by $20-25/mt to $670-700/mt ex-works for DC01 1 mm material, particularly due to the lack of offers from some re-rollers. As for exports, Turkey is offering at $650-690/mt FOB officially, up from $645/mt FOB on average seen earlier. In fact, according to sources, a CRC cargo has been sold at €640/mt CFR to Spain with a further increase seen in offer prices to €670/mt CFR. The FOB equivalent of the transaction stands at around $660/mt FOB, SteelOrbis estimates.