Turkish Steel Producers Successfully Increase HRC Prices Ahead of Ramadan

TURKEY June 19 2014 9:13 AM ANKARA (Scrap Register): Turkish steel producers successfully increased coil prices as buyers actively restocked ahead of Ramadan.

According to TSI, after hiking domestic HRC prices at the end of April to US$585- 590/tonne, Turkish producers maintained the upward momentum and pushed offers further up to $600 a ton.

The market mostly accepted these increases, as demand visibly improved and buyers were actively placing orders for June-July rolling, to secure material before the start of Ramadan.

According to the latest data from the Turkish Statistical Institute, April's flat steel imports declined by –22% year-on-year to 572kt. Notably, instability in Ukraine translated into –75% y-o-y drop in HRC exports to Turkey.