Since Turkish hot rolled coil (HRC) suppliers are making an effort to keep price levels stable, Turkish flat steel spot traders have chosen to keep offers unchanged, with the exception of discounts for very serious purchasers. However, most traders believe that prices cannot be sustained at current levels and will eventually drop in the coming days owing to the decreases in the scrap market and the weak activity levels in the domestic market.
According to reports, workable domestic hot rolled sheet prices are unchanged at around $730-750/mt ex-warehouse. Medium-sized and smaller traders provide around $730-740/mt ex-warehouse, while larger traders offer at around $745-750/mt ex-warehouse.
“We are trying to keep prices constant, but trade has fallen significantly and demand is nearly non-existent, and there are low prices in the market, and so it appears that prices will soften,” a bigger trader commented to SteelOrbis.
Nonetheless, as previously pointed out, particularly smaller and medium-sized traders have started to provide serious purchasers with discounts in the range of $710-720/mt ex-warehouse.
Likewise, prices for cold rolled sheets have been quoted at $840-880/mt ex-warehouse, the same range as in the previous week.
It is also important to highlight that producers’ prices for both HRC and CRC have drawn close to the current spot prices for sheets. Accordingly, while currently HRC is available at $700-725/mt ex-works base, a $5-10/mt decrease from the previous week, official offers for CRC from local re-rollers are at $820-840/mt ex-works.