Although some Turkish hot rolled coil (HRC) producers have been trying to raise their prices in response to China's increased prices, the spot market in Turkey has shown the opposite trend, with downward movements. Market participants state that it is difficult to keep prices stable or to raise them since demand is at such low levels. According to sources, some smaller traders in need of cash are selling at significantly reduced prices, nearly at producers' prices, in an effort to increase sales.
“We have lowered the pricing, but, even so, certain traders have lower prices at $570-580/mt ex-warehouse, making it difficult for producers who raised their offers to find acceptance at these levels. Furthermore, even though some other producers sell at lower prices, it seems that traders are still not interested in buying at these levels,” a large trader told SteelOrbis
Over the past week, the prevailing workable domestic prices for hot rolled sheets have decreased by $5/mt from last week to $580-595/mt ex-warehouse, while, in order to attract more interest from consumers, some smaller traders have been making aggressive offers at $570/mt ex-warehouse. According to reports, while bigger traders have offers at around $595/mt ex-warehouse, smaller and medium-sized traders have been offering at $580-590/mt ex-warehouse.
Similarly, the general range of domestic cold rolled sheet prices has weakened to around $700-730/mt ex-warehouse, down from $720-740/mt ex-warehouse in the previous week.
Meanwhile, at the moment producers are offering at around $550-570/mt ex-works for HRC and at around $670-700/mt ex-works for cold rolled coil.