The Turkish domestic flat steel market has started the current month with price hikes, as the weakening of the US dollar against the Turkish lira after the March 30 municipal elections in Turkey, as well as expectations that flat steel purchases delayed until the post-election period will be released soon both provide support for anticipations of an improvement in demand. In the meantime, raw material price increases are also nourishing price increase expectations in the global market. Under these circumstances, Turkish market players think that flat steel import offers to Turkey, which have not been announced yet, will remain unchanged as compared to last month's prices or show slight increases.
Last month, hot rolled coil (HRC) import offers to Turkey were standing at $525-535/mt CFR from Ukraine and at $545-550/mt CFR from Russia, while cold rolled coil (CRC) import offers were at $600-610/mt CFR from Ukraine and at $615-620/mt CFR from Russia.
