Local Turkish flat steel spot prices increase by $100/mt

Due to availability problems in the local Turkish flat steel spot market, prices have increased by $100/mt since last week. After the sales of large tonnages concluded yesterday, November 18, availability problems have reached record levels in the spot market. "Most traders are now out of stock and buyers are really in panic mode. Maybe they really do not need material, but they are in fear because of the thought they might need material," a trader told SteelOrbis. Also, hot rolled coil (HRC) and scrap prices have continued to increase since last week and the price increases support higher levels in the spot market. "Prices have increased for scrap and HRC, and have supported our prices, but the main problem is availability of material. We do not think the new price levels are healthy for the spot market. When you have nothing to sell, higher prices do not mean anything. We believe prices will see a correction when stocks are higher in the market," another trader told SteelOrbis. But it does not appear that the low stock problems will be resolved easily. As SteelOrbis has mentioned before, traders did not order sufficiently due to high producer prices in previous months and better stock levels are not anticipated in the spot market in the near term. "We could not order in the previous months because producers had higher price levels than our prices and we have had really bad demand. Most traders have skipped January and February orders. Now nobody knows how we resolve the stock problem," another trader told SteelOrbis.

Since last week, local spot prices have increased by $100/mt for HRC, hot rolled pickled and oiled materials and by $110/mt for CRC materials.