Over the past week, prices in the local Turkish hot rolled coil (HRC) market have continued their upward trend despite the weakness of demand. It is observed that Turkish buyers have sufficient inventories, and so they prefer to just monitor the market to gain a clearer perspective of the market’s likely future trend as the general opinion in the market is that prices have reached peak levels.
On the other hand, Turkish steel mills have increased their domestic HRC quotations by $10/mt week on week to $550-570/mt ex-works, citing their fairly full order books and mentioning that the recent increases in iron ore price had not yet been reflected in their own sales prices. Meanwhile, this new price range has failed to gain acceptance from buyers and Turkish buyers have started to exert downward pressure on domestic HRC quotations. Considering the availability of lower-priced import HRC offers, market sources expect buyers to exert further pressure on domestic prices in the short term.
As for the spot market, demand is still weak but traders’ prices have increased by $20/mt week on week in line with the rises in producers’ prices.
Product |
Price ($/mt) |
|
Eregli |
Gebze |
|
2-12 mm HRC |
580-590 |
590-600 |
1.5 mm HRS |
620-630 |
625-655 |
2-12 mm HRC (for large tonnages) |
|
570-580 |
3-12 mm HR P&O |
610-620 |
650-660 |