In the Turkish flat steel market, activity levels which had remained below expectations in October now seem to have recovered. In recent weeks, there had not been any significant improvement in the market, other than in demand from the automotive industry, which has shown a good performance since the beginning of this year. However, demand from the other sectors has finally improved, with last week seeing good activity levels for flat steel sellers.
In offers given to their domestic market, Turkish flat steel producers have kept their hot rolled product prices unchanged due to the increased competition, while domestic integrated producer Erdemir's cold rolled and galvanized product offers have increased by $10-20/mt as compared to previous weeks. Market players were not surprised by these increases.
Erdemir's hot rolled product base price offers have been standing at $610/mt, while its effective price for cold rolled products have been at $770/mt and at $800/mt for galvanized products, all for December production. Meantime, Colakoglu Metalurji no longer accepts orders below a certain volume and its response to inquiries for 3-8 mm hot rolled products was at $625/mt.
Meanwhile, demand in the Turkish galvanized flat steel market is following a strong trend. Producers' market offers for 0.5 mm galvanized flat steel products are currently standing at $840-880/mt.
In the spot markets, producers' price increases have been received positively. Traders, who were worrying about a possible price reduction in previous weeks, have now adopted a positive view of the market following the revival of demand revival and the price increases. This week, cold rolled product prices in Turkey's Eregli region were lower to some extent as compared to the prices in the Gebze region. However, for hot rolled products, prices in the Gebze region are slightly lower as compared to other regions. This difference arises from differences between local producers and from the scarce availability of materials in specific thicknesses. In general, the price level for 2 mm hot rolled products stands at $630-650/mt, while prices of 1.2 mm cold rolled flat products are heard at $750-790/mt.