Turkish flat steel prices, which increased after energy prices, started to weaken since the most significant negative element, poor demand, is still there. Such a trend has begun to slowly take its toll on Turkish retail sheet pricing.
The prevailing feasible domestic pricing for hot-rolled sheets is around $700-720/mt ex-warehouse, down from $700-735/mt ex-warehouse the previous week. Likewise, domestic cold-rolled sheet offers have dropped by $10/mt over the same period to $800-850/mt ex-warehouse. However, a few traders are attempting to sell at up to $875/mt ex-warehouse, which is unattainable given the current market conditions.
“Global inflation and rising costs are particularly damaging the demand side of the flat retail steel market at the present, because manufacturers of automobiles, white goods, and others can now make fewer products and sell each of them for a high price, resulting in less demand and booking on the flat retail steel market. As a result, in order to remain active in this market, we lowered our pricing this week since we must sell the products regardless of how much energy or expense prices rise,” a trader commented to SteelOrbis.