Foreign steel plate suppliers to the Turkish market have once again decreased their offers over the week, trying to be competitive in finding orders. Aggressive offers from Asia are still heard and the buyers are using them in order to put pressure on the traditional sellers.
In the import segment, Bulgaria’s Stomana decreased its base price by $10/mt to $1,090/mt CFR for November shipments. Romania’s Galati has also adjusted its prices slightly, by only $15/mt to $1,050/mt CFR as a target price. However, the rest of the regular foreign plate suppliers have dropped their prices more significantly. Macedonia’s Makstil decreased its offer by €60-70/mt to €890-900/mt CFR or $1,040-1,055/mt CFR for shipbuilding grade. Moreover, the mill sold minor lots within the range. Steel plate from Ukraine is now on offer at $930-950/mt CFR, $20/mt down over the week. Plate from South Korea, offered through traders, are available in the range of $940-980/mt CFR for base grade. In the meantime Indonesia is still in the market to sell at $940-960/mt CFR.
Domestic Erdemir plate offers are still reported at $980-1,000/mt ex-works for S235JR grade but a lot of market players report the mill is not giving firm offers neither to local nor export markets, claiming it is sold out for December production.
In the meantime, the pricing in Turkey’s ex-warehouse plate market is kind of chaotic, to the large extent due to the currency fluctuations, triggered by the Central Bank’s decision to decrease the interest rate. Sources report that while some of the traders are keeping their stock prices at higher levels of $1,000-1,100/mt ex-warehouse and above, some have provided huge discounts, most probably trying to get rid of the stocks and turn them into cash. Some of them have dropped the stock plate base prices to $950/mt ex-warehouse while the lowest level, reported in today’s market, is at $920-930/mt ex-warehouse.