Due to the acceleration of demand for Turkish hot rolled coil (HRC) in the export markets since the beginning of February, Turkish mills had increased their domestic HRC prices and had also given indications that they would raise their domestic cold rolled steel quotations. In this context, Turkish buyers' price inquiries for import flat steel have increased over the past week. Given the rising trend of raw material quotations, there are expectations in the Turkish market that domestic steel producers' local flat steel prices will increase further, while it is believed that purchases of import flat steel will accelerate in Turkey in the short term.
Meanwhile, Russian HRC and cold rolled coil (CRC) offers to Turkey have remained unchanged over the past week at $490-500/mt CFR and $570-580/mt CFR, respectively. Ukrainian HRC and CRC prices have also moved sideways in the same period at $490/mt CFR and $565-570/mt CFR, respectively. Additionally, market sources report that CIS-based flat steel suppliers have increased their export offers on FOB basis on the upper end and so their offers to Turkey are expected to rise slightly in the short term.