Spot flat steel prices in Turkey have remained stable over the past week, although the pressure on the sellers has been rising. One reason is the declining flats prices from producers, and also the uncertainty surrounding the recently announced export duties in Russia. In addition, the economic outook and the currency situation are negative in Turkey and have been restraining business for a while.
Traders have been postponing restocking from mills, trying to see how low prices may go. In the meantime, they have started to give discounts of up to $20-30/mt themselves in order to decrease stock levels. Most of them have been stuggling with liquidity issues, which is another reason for the current destocking activity.
"We do not have high stock levels, on the contrary, material availability is still problematic in the spot market. But many of us are struggling with liquidity problems at the moment because of the fluctuations in the Turkish lira-US dollar exchange rate and the unstable economic outlook in the country. Also, the pressure on prices is getting stronger everyday. We believe August will be harder than July and we want to bring in cash as soon as possible. On the other hand, nobody is ordering new materials for the upcoming months and we believe material availability will be extremely problematic in autumn," a trader told SteelOrbis.
Prices have been stable for HR pickled materials, CRC and HRC materials over the past week.
|
Product |
Price ($/mt) |
|
|
Ereğli |
Gebze |
|
|
2-12 mm HRC |
1,110-1,140 |
1,130-1,150 |
|
1.5 mm HRS |
1,160-1,180 |
1,180-1,190 |
|
3-12 mm HR P&O |
1,180-1,200 |
1,190-1,220 |
|
0.6 mm CRC |
1,430-1,440 |
1,430-1,450 |
|
0.7-2 mm CRC |
1,380-1,400 |
1,390-1,420 |