Despite insufficient trade in both the domestic and export markets, the stable trend of hot rolled coil (HRC) prices encouraged Turkish pipe producers to keep prices stable week on week. As a result of ongoing economic problems and rising costs in Turkey, in addition to the weakening of the scrap market lately, market players report that the overall sentiment in the hollow section market is still somewhat negative.
“As the year comes to a close, everyone, both producers and buyers, is doing final financial checks before the New Year, and so demand has remained slow as expected. However, I feel that, with growing costs, large price reductions will be impossible in the coming weeks though, if demand stays at this level in the coming weeks, we may see slight price cuts,” a medium-sized pipe maker told SteelOrbis.
Accordingly, this week domestic hollow section prices have remained stable week on week at $770-850/mt ex-works. In the meanwhile, offers from larger mills are reported at roughly $750/mt ex-works.
On the other hand, throughout the past week, hollow section export prices have remained stable at around $800-850/mt FOB, with not much interest from abroad.