It is observed that demand for import flat steel in Turkey has remained slack over the past week, while buyers have concluded purchases only in line with their needs. Following the Turkish Central Bank’s decision to increase interest rates to 24 percent, the recovery of the Turkish lira was short-lived since it once again started to lose strength against the US dollar in subsequent days. This has a significant role on the weakness of demand. Additionally, the notice by the Turkish Ministry of Trade announcing that Turkey has set import quotas for certain steel products and will collect 25 percent import duty if the quotas are exceeded has caused expectations of a halt in the downtrend of domestic hot rolled coil (HRC) prices. Under the current circumstances, CIS-based suppliers are expected to monitor the developments, determining their new price levels accordingly.
As a result, ex-CIS flat steel offers to Turkey have remained stable week on week, with HRC prices and cold rolled coil (CRC) offers remaining at $560-580/mt CFR and $620-630/mt CFR, respectively.