Amid declining prices of scrap and hot rolled coil (HRC), Turkish flat steel spot traders have had no choice but to reduce their offer prices over the past week. However, the drop has been driven mostly by smaller and medium-sized traders, while bigger traders have maintained their offers relatively stable, while observing market movements. Even while bigger traders have maintained the higher levels in the market, most market participants anticipate a further decline in the coming weeks since, in addition to the market's downward trend, demand is still weak and is not supporting prices.
“For the time being, we have maintained prices at their current level and are making an effort to prevent a reduction. We want the market to stabilize both pricing and the decline, but we will inevitably experience a decrease as well due to the sluggish demand,” a bigger trader told SteelOrbis
Over the past week, the prevailing workable domestic prices for hot rolled sheets have decreased by $10/mt from last week to $600-620/mt ex-warehouse. According to reports, while bigger traders have offers at around $620/mt ex-warehouse, smaller and medium-sized traders have been offering at $600-610/mt ex-warehouse.
Similarly, the general range of domestic cold rolled sheet prices has weakened to around $710-745/mt ex-warehouse, down from $720-745/mt ex-warehouse in the previous week.