Turkish coated steel prices mostly stable

Demand has slowed down in the Turkish coated steel market since last week but prices have mostly remained stable. Only 0.5 mm hot dip galvanized coil prices have decreased by $10/mt on the lower end during negotiations, but buyers continue to exert pressure on prices."Scrap prices have decreased below $295/mt since last week and we think hot rolled coil and coated steel prices will soon be updated accordingly. Demand is low at the moment and we believe it will soften further because of the upcoming year-end period, like previous years," a buyer told SteelOrbis. On the other hand, producers are unwilling to update their prices rapidly. " We have good production volumes and export levels are also good at the moment. We believe raw material and coated steel prices will fluctuate within a narrow range and we want to observe the steel market before we make any reductions," a producer told SteelOrbis.

In the export market, demand has been better since last week and prices have remained stable. "Demand is good especially from the EU and local producers in northern Europe are targeting above €600/mt levels for HDG prices. Also, stocks are mostly low in the target export markets and delivery times are long. In this situation, we give attractive offers in terms of price and delivery time to the export markets and we expect demand will increase further for ex-Turkey coated steel production in the short term," an exporter told SteelOrbis.