The domestic flats market in Turkey is still on a downtrend, resulting from low demand, insufficient sales and decreasing scrap prices, but also fueled by the aggressive price policy of one of the local sellers, which was reported by SteelOrbis earlier. The hot-rolled coil (HRC) suppliers, who decreased their offers by $60/mt early this week, decided to give minor additional discounts by the end of the week. The re-rollers provided big discounts for coated and cold-rolled coils (CRC), aiming to trigger some sales.
Current official prices for HRC in Turkey are at $880-930/mt ex-works base, down $10-20/mt from mid-week levels. However, some buyers report $850-860/mt ex-works offers are on the table and even these levels are not considered workable. “The mills are not fully booked for July and the demand is not there, so they are under more and more pressure,” a producer said. In the export segment, offers for ex-Turkey HRC have fallen by $10-20/mt over the past week to $890-930/mt FOB, specifically in offers to the EU.
In the CRC and coated steel segments, pricing has been chaotic this week. Some re-rollers have decided not to follow Tezcan and not to give aggressive prices, while some sellers, including stockists, have started to sell much lower than last week, trying to get rid of stocks, to get cash and to avoid even bigger losses. As a result, the prices for hot-dipped galvanized (HDG) coils have dropped by $60-80/mt over the past week, to $950-1,000/mt ex-works. Firm pre-painted galvanized iron (PPGI) offers have been rare and at around $1,070-1,100/mt ex-works, down $50-60/mt. However, some sources say $1,050/mt ex-works offers are also available. The domestic CRC prices dropped by $50/mt over the week to $950-1,030/mt ex-works, sources report.