Over the past week, demand in the local Turkish CRC market has remained slack. Buyers have continued to adopt a cautious stance in terms of making new bookings and have been willing to keep their inventories at minimum levels due to the negative economic situation in the country, the approach of the summer season and the Ramadan period. However, Turkish CRC producers have increased their prices slightly by $5/mt to $585-605/mt ex-works due to the positive sentiment which has started to prevail in the market since the US reduced the 50 percent duty on Turkish steel imports to 25 percent as of May 17 and since global iron ore prices have increased exceeded the level of $100/mt CFR China for the first time for a long time. Market sources state that they are not expecting a significant recovery in terms of domestic CRC demand due to the political tensions resulting from the decision to rerun Istanbul's mayoral election which is negatively impacting the economic situation.
In the spot market, prices of domestic CRC sold by local traders have increased by $5/mt week on week and are at the following levels:
|
Product |
Price ($/mt) |
|
|
Eregli |
Gebze |
|
|
0.6 mm CRC |
655-665 |
665-685 |
|
0.7-2 mm CRC |
625-645 |
635-655 |
The offers are on ex-warehouse basis, for May delivery, and exclude 18 percent VAT.