While demand for steel plate in Turkey remains at medium levels amid modest project activity, import plate prices, specifically from Asia, have increased significantly over the past week, mainly amid war-related risks and logistics issues, but in some cases also due to limited availability for acceptable lead times. “The freight situation for a market like plate is even worse than for regular coils or semis, because plate is mostly traded in small lots and so freight rates are sky high,” a trader told SteelOrbis.
According to sources, basic steel plate grades from China are on offer in Turkey at $600-620/mt CFR for May shipments, up from $570-590/mt CFR two weeks back. In the meantime, the plate offers from South Korea have increased quite significantly - the latest offers for St52 grade have been reported at $795-820/mt CFR. However, it seems that mills have started offering for July shipments, with this lead time being too long for the Turkish market. According to market information, S45C plate from South Korea was offered earlier this week at $750-760/mt CFR. Two weeks ago, St52 plate from South Korea stood at $745-760/mt CFR.
As for European plate, the number of offers is scarce, and so is demand from the Turkish side. Bulgaria is still offering at $930/mt CFR for May shipment, with not much interest seen, while Macedonia prefers to stay away from active offers since it seems to be sold out for June.
In the local market in Turkey, the domestic producer, according to sources, is offering at $720-730/mt ex-works and above for some grades, up $10-20/mt over the past fortnight. In the meantime, local ex-warehouse plate prices have been reported at $810-830/mt for St52 plate and at around $760-770/mt for S235JR plate.
