Competition has tightened in Turkey’s import plate market over the past week, taking into account new and rather aggressive offers coming from Asian suppliers. As a result, the regular sellers to Turkey have been forced to provide rather sizeable discounts to attract orders.
According to sources, buyers in the Turkish market have started to receive plate offers from Indonesia at $940-960/mt CFR, which is considered a rather aggressive level. Official offers from South Korea have been reported at $980-990/mt CFR Turkey, however, lower levels - $940/mt CFR - have been heard in North Africa. Accordingly, additional discounts are considered possible for Turkey as well. In such a situation, regular plate sellers to Turkey have chosen to make a correction to their prices as well. Ukraine’s Metinvest is in the Turkish market with its official offer at $970/mt CFR and is ready to negotiate. Bulgaria’s Stomana is now offering $1,100/mt CFR officially, down $30/mt over the past week. Romania’s Galati has also readjusted its price down by $10-20/mt to $1,065/mt CFR as a target level. In the meantime, the shipbuilding grade plate from Macedonia’s Makstil is available at €960/mt CFR or $1,130/mt CFR.
Local Turkish producer Erdemir, according to sources, has kept its official domestic price for S235JR plate at $1,000/mt ex-works while its S355JR material is available at $1,030/mt ex-works. Still, buyers are quite confident that $20/mt discounts are applicable to the above mentioned levels. In the ex-warehouse plate segment, S235JR offers from several large traders are reported at $1,120-1,140/mt, down by $10-20/mt over the past week. However, some sources say the smaller companies are ready to deal at $1,090-1,110/mt ex-warehouse. “The delivery times of mills are late. Stockists cannot find goods urgently to replace the plates they sell, so therefore their prices are higher than local mills’ prices and import levels,” a trade told SteelOrbis.