Demand in the local Turkish hot rolled coil (HRC) market, which slackened significantly last week, has showed no recovery this week, with demand for producers’ products still on the low side. Due to strong expectations of a decline in local HRC prices, buyers have continued to postpone their purchases. Turkish HRC producers, who were unwilling to decrease their prices sharply until this week, have reduced their prices by $55/mt on average this week to $470-500/mt ex-works. However, producers are expected to be more flexible in accepting buyers’ firm bids due to weak demand.
Meanwhile, demand has also remained slack in the Turkish HRC spot market. Turkish traders, whose prices had been declining since May, have maintained their price levels unchanged this week due to the stagnancy of trading activity in the market and also since they still have high-priced HRC inventories. However, the traders state that they can offer new discounts if any increase is observed in inquiries from buyers.
The domestic sales prices of traders for local and imported hot rolled flat steel products in the Eregli and Gebze regions of Turkey are as follows:
Product |
Price ($/mt) |
|
Eregli |
Gebze |
|
2-12 mm HRC |
500-530 |
500-550 |
1.5 mm HRS |
540-570 |
550-600 |
2-12 mm HRC (for large tonnages) |
460-510 |
|
3-12 mm HR P&O |
560-580 |
560-600 |
The above prices are ex-warehouse and for advance payments, exclusive of 18 percent VAT.