Over the past week, Turkish buyers have continued to postpone their import flat steel bookings due to the negative economic situation in Turkey and the six percent drop in the value of the Turkish lira against the US dollar during the past month. Market sources state that Turkish buyers are still cautious about making new bookings and are keeping their inventories at minimum levels due to the approach of the summer holidays. In the short term, no recovery is expected in demand for import flat steel in Turkey. However, import flat steel offers to Turkey may increase slightly in the coming period due to positive sentiment in the Turkish steel market since the US has reduced the 50 percent duty on Turkish steel imports to 25 percent as of May 17, due to the rises in flat steel prices in the Europe - even though the increases have not gained acceptance yet - and due to the upward movement of global iron ore prices.
During the past week, ex-CIS flat steel offers to Turkey have remained stable. Currently, ex-CIS hot rolled coil (HRC) and cold rolled coil (CRC) offers to Turkey are still at $485-510/mt CFR and $565-590/mt CFR, respectively.