Despite considerable declines in the scrap market compared to last week, which also caused hot rolled coil (HRC) prices to fall, Turkish flat steel spot traders have kept their offers stable week on week. However, given the impact of the softness of HRC prices and the continuing slowness of demand, the majority of spot traders feel that a drop in prices next week is unavoidable.
“Even though we maintained the price as long as we could and won't be moving much this week, there will undoubtedly be a decrease at the beginning of next week due to the poor scrap scenario and the incredibly low demand in the spot market,” a large trader told SteelOrbis.
As a result, this week's workable prices are at $610-620/mt ex-warehouse, with the bigger traders reported to be offering at about $620/mt ex-warehouse, while medium-sized and smaller traders are offering at roughly $610-620/mt ex-warehouse.
Likewise, in the cold rolled sheet segment, most sellers have decided to keep offers stable week on week at $720-745/mt ex-warehouse. However, due to slower trade and softening signals in the market, some traders are offering at $710/mt ex-warehouse.
Meanwhile, Turkey's official HRC and CRC prices in the domestic market stand at $580-595/mt ex-works and $690-720/mt ex-works, respectively.