During the past week, the Turkish flat steel spot market has shown mixed price trends. Despite weak demand, prices for hot rolled steel (HRS) have remained stable as traders continue to hold their offers firm. On the other hand, the cold rolled steel (CRS) segment has come under greater downward pressure, mainly due to smaller traders offering more aggressive prices. According to reports, over the past week some smaller traders have reduced their CRS offers by around $20/mt in an effort to attract limited buyer interest. In contrast, larger traders have generally kept their price levels unchanged. However, many market participants are now expecting further price declines in the coming days, particularly from hot rolled coil (HRC) mills, following the recent price cuts by Chinese suppliers. Meanwhile, although the scrap segment has shown a positive trend, ongoing financial difficulties and weak demand continue to limit any meaningful recovery in the Turkish flat steel spot market.
Hot rolled sheet prices have remained stable in the past week in the range of $570-590/mt ex-warehouse. Larger traders continue to offer at the upper end of this range, while medium-sized and smaller traders are quoting slightly lower prices.
In contrast, in the cold rolled sheet segment, larger traders have mostly kept their offers stable, whereas smaller and medium-sized traders have reduced prices over the past week. Current offers are reported at $640-700/mt ex-warehouse, down from $660-705/mt ex-warehouse in the previous week. Meanwhile, flat steel producers have reported stable prices this week, with hot rolled coil (HRC) offered at $535-545/mt ex-works and cold rolled coil (CRC) at $625-640/mt ex-works.