Turkey’s Kardemir opens sections order book, sells notable tonnage

Turkey’s largest integrated long steel maker Kardemir, which opened its order books for sections on March 15, reclosed it the afternoon of the same day after receiving notable orders from the domestic market, S&P Global Platts learned from market sources.

Kardemir put its new sales price for IPE-NPUs 160-550 mm sections at Lira 5,625-5,775/mt ($740-$760)/mt ex-works, while prices for HEA-HEBs 120-500 mm sections were at Lira 5,700-6,275/mt ($750-$825)/mt ex-works. The exchange rate was 7.60/$1.

The company sold around 80,000 mt of sections to the domestic market within a day, a manager of a trading company told S&P Global Platts, saying the prices were reasonable considering the current market situation and exchange rate.

The manager also said he doesn’t expect further declines in scrap prices. Most of the markets remained strong and some Turkish mills – especially some flat steel producers like Colakoglu – will enter into maintenance in May. Some producers are trying to evaluate this period, so this could be a temporary movement, he said.

Turkish deepsea import ferrous scrap prices fell notably on March 9, following a rising trend, as mills booked US-origin cargoes at lower levels, as Platts has reported.

S&P Global Platts assessed Turkish imports of premium heavy melting scrap 1/2 (80:20) March 9 at $455/mt CFR, down $7.50/mt on day.

Despite some adjustments seen in Turkish mills’ lira-denominated rebar list prices on March 10, due to exchange rate fluctuations, mills’ rebar prices have remained largely stable in the range of $642-$655/mt ex-works on a dollar basis, depending on region and tonnage.

— Cenk Can