During the past week, demand for import flat steel in Turkey has remained slack. Meanwhile, Turkish buyers have started to exert downward pressure on import HRC prices due to the stagnancy in summer season, ongoing rapid depreciation of the Turkish lira against the US dollar and the market expectation that domestic HRC supplies in Turkey will increase slighlty as Turkish HRC exporters will decrease a bit as the US President Trump increased the duties on Turkish steel imports to 50 percent. Under these circumstances Turkish buyers are asking for discounts from CIS-based HRC suppliers, while they are also exerting pressure on domestic HRC prices, which are expected to decline amid weakness of demand. However, CIS-based HRC suppliers are in no rush to decrease their quotations as they expect that demand in the global market will accelerate as summer period ends.
Under the current circumstances, ex-CIS HRC offers to Turkey have remained stable week on week at $575-595/mt CFR, while ex-CIS cold rolled coil (CRC) quotations have also remained stable in the same period at $625-650/mt CFR Turkey.