Given the ongoing increase in pricing from local hot rolled coil (HRC) mills and the optimistic atmosphere in the scrap market, Turkish flat steel spot traders have raised their offers in accordance with market movements. However, according to market participants, despite some slight activity in trade at the beginning of this week as a result of rising prices, the demand situation does not look particularly bright.
“There was some demand at the beginning of the week due to the price increase, but later in the week demand has quieted down. In general, things are fairly weak on both the seller and buyer sides, thus any significant gain in spot prices will not last long due to a lack of demand,” a trader told SteelOrbis.
Over the past week, the prevailing workable domestic prices for hot rolled sheets have increased by $15/mt from last week to $595-610/mt ex-warehouse, while, in order to attract more interest from consumers, some smaller traders have offered the previous levels at $590/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 $595-600/mt ex-warehouse.
Similarly, the general range of domestic cold rolled sheet prices has increased to around $720-745/mt ex-warehouse, up from $685-720/mt ex-warehouse in the previous week.
Meanwhile, at the moment producers are offering at around $560-580/mt ex-works for HRC and at around $670-700/mt ex-works for cold rolled coil.
