Even if the scrap market showed some recovery last week, considering lower levels in hot rolled coil (HRC) prices alongside a grim outlook, Turkish flat steel spot traders have drastically decreased offers over the last week. Moreover, as the end of the year approaches, the majority of customers are postponing purchases and waiting until the new year to see how the market evolves. Market participants hold two different views about price evolution, some believe that if demand remains poor, prices will not rise significantly, while others believe that prices will remain somewhat steady or increase due to rising costs in Turkey.
Over the past week, the prevailing workable domestic prices for hot rolled sheets have decreased by $20/mt from last week to $580-610/mt ex-warehouse. According to reports, while bigger traders have offers at around $610/mt ex-warehouse, smaller and medium-sized traders have been offering at $580-600/mt ex-warehouse.
Similarly, the general range of domestic cold rolled sheet prices has weakened to around $720-740/mt ex-warehouse, down from $720-745/mt ex-warehouse in the previous week. Nonetheless, certain traders are offering cold rolled sheets at $700-710/mt ex-warehouse in order to attract greater interest from customers.
Meanwhile, local producers’ HRC prices in Turkey are now at about $550-570/mt ex-works, while their cold rolled coil prices are at $690-710/mt ex-works.