Domestic retail flat steel prices in Turkey have been steadily declining amid falling HRC prices, sluggish demand, inflation, and domestic economic difficulties which have been exacerbated over the past several weeks. Nonetheless, most traders are now focusing on closely monitoring scrap prices because they have dropped dramatically in the last two weeks, putting pressure on the domestic retail steel industry.
“Normally, we monitor scrap prices, but during this period we are much more focused because the decrease is accelerating, implying that bad days are on the way. During the coronavirus period, we had this problem as well, with sheets dropping by $500-600/mt ex-warehouse, and, unfortunately, with in the light of this information, we see that the decrease is on its way and will last until September,” a trader told SteelOrbis.
Currently, workable domestic hot rolled sheets (HRS) prices are settled at $800-850/mt ex-warehouse, down $40-45/mt over the past week. In addition, a few suppliers are trying to sell at around $860-870/mt ex-warehouse, which is not workable in this market situation.
On the other hand, in the cold rolled sheet (CRS) market, most traders are offering at around $900-950/mt ex-warehouse, which is down $45-50/mt compared to last Friday. Some suppliers are still trying to stick to $980-1,030/mt ex-warehouse, but can hardly sell as the level is not competitive.
“The cold roll sheet market is going down … On the demand side, I believe we have one major issue that we must address if we want to return to normal price ranges. The first is that the automobile and white goods sectors must be active because they are our main clients. However, they are choosing to produce slowly because they see that people are buying even if there is inflation and product prices are rising. For example, they raised prices enough to sell one car for the price of two, and so they are playing a trick by producing less and selling at a higher price to make a profit, which has sharply reduced our sales to them,” a source told SteelOrbis.