According to market sources, demand for import flat steel in Turkey has remained slack this week, but is still relatively stronger than demand for domestic products. Meanwhile, import flat steel prices in Turkey, which were announced early this week, have moved on a downtrend due to buyers’ firm bids. While buyers have continued to exert pressure on import flat steel offers, prices of import hot rolled coil (HRC), which were at $310-320/mt CFR Turkey early this week, have decreased to $295-310/mt CFR Turkey in concluded deals. Despite the reduction of HRC prices, buyers’ pressure for lower prices has not eased and they are forcing sellers to decrease their offers further by making firm bids for HRC at $290-295/mt CFR.
Over the past month, ex-Ukraine HRC offers to Turkey have decreased by $10/mt to $300-310/mt CFR, while ex-Russia HRC prices have decreased by $20/mt on the lower end and declined by $15/mt on the upper end to $295-310/mt CFR. In this context, ex-Russia HRC offers to Turkey have dropped below Ukrainian HRC offers for the first time in a long period, which makes market sources think that there exists room for a further small reduction in ex-Ukraine HRC offers to Turkey.
On the other hand, over the past month ex-Ukraine cold rolled coil (CRC) offers to Turkey have decreased by $20/mt to $360-370 CFR, while Russian CRC quotations have declined by $25/mt to $365-385/mt CFR over the same period.