In Turkey, hollow section (HS) prices have gone down by $50-100/mt over the past week. The main reasons for the further decrease are continuing feedstock price falls, Turkey’s financial problems, and the most significant cause is a lack of demand. Financial difficulties explain the lack of demand; regardless of how much HS prices have dropped, inflation rates and fluctuating currency exchange rates are discouraging local purchasers from active purchases.
In the local market, this week’s workable HS prices were at $850-900/mt ex-works while some small mills have been trying to sell at around $950/mt ex-works, which is not workable under the current market conditions.
“The local market is currently dead due to the difficult circumstances in Turkey. The economic crisis has had an impact on many sectors, including ours. First, construction projects stopped, and then exchange rates and inflation affected prices. Now the consumer is counting every penny out of his wallet. We can easily see that our sales have been reduced significantly,” a supplier told SteelOrbis.
On the other hand, HS offers in the export segment are at around $900-950/mt FOB.
"We compensated for the negative effect of the domestic market's sluggishness this week with exports. We are attempting to enter new markets in order to increase our exports even further,” a pipe maker told SteelOrbis. Some sources reported that demand has been coming mainly from eastern Europe and some orders were placed from western EU countries.