Following the recent price reduction in the hot rolled coil (HRC) segment and continuing slow demand, Turkish flat steel traders have had no choice but to cut their offer prices significantly over the past week. Meanwhile, despite the scrap market's favorable outlook and considerable price drops over the past week, the majority of flat steel traders claim that trade has not shown any improvement. As a result, sentiments are mostly poor for the coming weeks given the ongoing negative factors and the impending holidays.
“Despite the declines, demand remains weak, making it unlikely that scrap will make a difference. As the holidays approach, the outlook for the coming weeks does not look promising,” a trader told SteelOrbis.
Over the past week, the prevailing workable domestic prices for hot rolled sheets have decreased by $15-20/mt from last week to $580-600/mt ex-warehouse. According to reports, while bigger traders have offers at around $600/mt ex-warehouse, smaller and medium-sized traders have offered at $580-590/mt ex-warehouse.
Similarly, the general range of domestic cold rolled sheet prices has weakened to around $700-740/mt ex-warehouse, down from $710-740/mt ex-warehouse in the previous week.
Meanwhile, Turkey's official HRC and CRC prices in the domestic market stand at $565-575/mt ex-works and $660-680/mt ex-works, respectively.
