This week, Turkish cold rolled coil (CRC) producers have increased their domestic prices for February output by $25/mt on average week on week to $640-660/mt ex-works, in line with the uptrend in domestic hot rolled coil (HRC) prices. However, market players state that these price increases are unrealistic since prices of iron ore and coking coal are moving on a soft trend and as the previous sharp rises seen in raw material prices have come to end. In this context, demand in the local Turkish CRC market is slack as buyers are adopting a wait-and-see stance with their view that the price increases are unrealistic and also due to the ongoing political and economic uncertainties in Turkey.
Meanwhile, Turkish traders have increased their CRC prices by $30/mt week on week, in line with the increases in producers’ prices and also since high-priced cold rolled products previously booked have continued to enter their inventories. However, demand is still week in the spot market due to the rapid strengthening of the US dollar against the Turkish lira since the beginning of this week and due to cash flow problems.
Currently, traders’ CRC prices in the local Turkish spot market are as follows:
Product |
Price ($/mt) |
|
Eregli |
Gebze |
|
0.6 mm CRC |
680-690 |
690-710 |
0.7-2 mm CRC |
650-660 |
660-680 |
The offers are on ex-warehouse basis, for January delivery, and exclude 18 percent VAT.