Demand in local Turkish CRC market recovers slightly

It is observed that demand in the local Turkish cold rolled coil (CRC) market has recovered slightly over the past week. The perception that domestic hot rolled coil (HRC) prices in Turkey have bottomed out and will start to move up has strengthened over the past week amid the end of the downtrend of global flat steel prices, the increases in global scrap quotations and also as iron ore prices have remained above the $70/mt mark. Accordingly buyers of CRC in Turkey have accelerated their purchases before any possible increase in prices. With higher demand, domestic CRC prices in Turkey have moved up. Market sources state that the positive mood in the global steel market is expected to continue to prevail at least until after the Chinese New Year holiday (February 2-10), while they also believe that the local Turkish CRC market may continue its upward movement, though the recovery in demand is expected to remain limited due to the negative economic outlook in Turkey. Under the current circumstances, Turkish mills have increased their domestic CRC prices by $10/mt over the past week to $570-590/mt ex-works, excluding 18 percent VAT.

In the spot market, prices of domestic CRC sold by local traders have also moved up by $10/mt week on week and are at the following levels:

The offers are on ex-warehouse basis, for January delivery, and exclude 18 percent VAT.