Over the past week, demand in the local Turkish hot rolled coil (HRC) market has remained slack, while prices have moved downwards. Turkish buyers have continued to postpone their bookings and to exert pressure on prices ahead of the local elections to be held on March 31. In addition, as a result of the softening of global iron ore prices and since the upward movement of scrap prices has ended, Turkish HRC producers have accepted buyers’ firm bids and decreased their prices by $20/mt to $520-540/mt ex-works. Despite the declines in prices, demand for domestic HRC in Turkey has not accelerated that much and buyers have continued to adopt a cautious stance as they are unwilling to conclude deals before seeing a clearer outlook in terms of demand from end-users after the election.
As for the spot market, demand is still weak and traders’ prices have declined by $20/mt week on week.
|
Produc t |
Price ($/mt) |
|
|
Eregli |
Gebze |
|
|
2-12 mm HRC |
550-560 |
560-570 |
|
1.5 mm HRS |
590-600 |
595-625 |
|
2-12 mm HRC (for large tonnages) |
540-550 |
|
|
3-12 mm HR P&O |
580-590 |
620-630 |