Demand and inquiries in the local Turkish hot rolled coil (HRC) market have increased slightly over the past week. However, buyers have continued to make HRC bookings only to meet their immediate needs, resulting in demand remaining at weak levels. With the slight recovery of prices and inquiries, Turkish HRC producers have increased their prices by $10/mt this week to $430-440/mt ex-works. Meanwhile, buyers are still cautious about making new HRC bookings due to Moody’s decision to downgrade Turkey’s credit ratings on September 23, the three-month extension of the ongoing state of emergency in the country and the depreciation of the Turkish lira against the US dollar. Under these circumstances, demand in the local Turkish HRC market is not expected to recover in the short term.
Meanwhile, traders in the Turkish domestic HRC spot market have also increased their prices by $10/mt week on week due to the slight increase in demand and inquiries.
The domestic sales prices of traders for local and imported hot rolled flat steel products in the Eregli and Gebze regions of Turkey are as follows:
Product |
Price ($/mt) |
|
|
Eregli |
Gebze |
2-12 mm HRC |
450-460 |
450-470 |
1.5 mm HRS |
490-500 |
495-515 |
2-12 mm HRC (for large tonnages) |
430-440 |
|
3-12 mm HR P&O |
500-510 |
520-550 |