Most suppliers in Turkish steel plate market are trying to increase their offers officially, mainly citing moderate project activity in terms of plate consumption and higher local HRC prices from domestic mills. However, the global market uncertainty together with tariff-related turmoil and falling import scrap prices are holding back trade and prevent buyers from accepting sizeable price increases.
Import offers from South Korea, according to sources, have increased from $650/mt CFR to $675-680/mt CFR for base grades and for end-of-June shipments, but buyers are still bidding closer to $630/mt CFR. Chinese base shipbuilding plate offers (gr.A and S275JR) have moved up by around $10/mt to $590-605/mt CFR for early June shipments.
Offers from European countries have remained relatively stable. Bulgaria is officially in the market with $800/mt CFR for June shipments. However, buyers expect discounts of up to $20/mt to be on the table for serious buyers. Romania’s Liberty Galati has announced the intention to restart its blast furnace after many months of keeping it idle. The supplier’s target price for plate for May-June production is $770/mt CFR, SteelOrbis has learned.
In the local market, according to sources, the domestic mill’s plate prices have been reported by buyers mainly at $690-720/mt ex-works, up $10/mt over the past two weeks. Retail prices for S355JR plate are reported at $770-790/mt ex-warehouse, slightly down over the past two weeks, most probably since traders seek to boost sales.
