Over the past week, demand in the local Turkish hot rolled coil (HRC) market has remained slack, while buyers have continued to postpone their bookings due to their cautious mood amid the economic situation of the country. Although their production costs have increased due to the rises in energy charges and in prices of raw materials, Turkish mills have decreased their prices by $15/mt week on week to $585-595/mt ex-works in order to accelerate their sales. Today, September 13, the Turkish Central Bank has raised interest rates and this situation has created the expectation that trading activity will slow down in the market. Also, the Turkish government is announcing new measures every day given the worrying state of the national economy. As this is contributing to the increasing uncertainty in the market, Turkish buyers are not expected to accelerate their HRC bookings in the short term.
On the other hand, trading activity in the Turkish HRC spot market has slowed down significantly and demand received by traders has remained at weak levels due to the fluctuations of the Turkish lira-US dollar exchange. As a result, traders’ prices for HRC have decreased by $15/mt and declined by $25/mt for HR P&O. Domestic sales prices of traders for local HRC in Turkey’s Eregli and Gebze regions have remained stable in the given period at the following levels:
|
Product |
Price ($/mt) |
|
|
Eregli |
Gebze |
|
|
2-12 mm HRC |
595-605 |
605-615 |
|
1.5 mm HRS |
635-645 |
650-670 |
|
2-12 mm HRC (for large tonnages) |
|
585-595 |
|
3-12 mm HR P&O |
625-635 |
665-675 |