In the Turkish domestic flat steel market, demand continues to remain significantly low. As price declines prevail in the Turkish flat steel market, buyers are currently delaying their purchases, anticipating further price cuts. In the meantime, some market players interpret this waiting period as a sign of disapproval of local and import offers. In the Turkish domestic flat steel market, producers' hot rolled coil (HRC) offers stand at $680-700/mt ex-works, while their cold rolled coil (CRC) prices are in the range of $810-830/mt ex-works.
Although Turkish mills' declining HRC export offers seem to be acceptable in terms of price level, it is learned that Ukrainian and Russian HRC offers to the export markets are more competitive. In the meantime, the price gap between Turkish offers and prices in European domestic markets is $20-30/mt and thus European buyers prefer to buy material from their domestic markets. It is heard that Turkish mills' HRC export offers are at $660-670/mt FOB.
In the Turkish domestic spot market, HRC prices have been at $720-750/mt, while CRC prices have been at $840-880/mt, both ex-warehouse. Due to the anticipation of further price declines, purchases have been delayed and there are few transactions in the market.
As for imports, Turkish market players state that ex-Ukraine offers are reasonable, while Ukrainian offers for shipments to Turkey are expected to become clearer by next week. It is yet to be seen if the new price levels will gain acceptance in the market.