Major Turkish integrated long steel producer Kardemir pulled down its bar and billet prices further Tuesday, joining other Turkish mills that have continued to cut list prices on low demand and the decline seen in scrap pricing in a sluggish market.

Some long steel producers are still working with reduced capacities, as the expected recovery in demand following the New Year holidays hasn't been seen yet. Sluggish market sentiment was also putting pressure on both domestic and imported scrap prices.

S&P Global Platts' price assessment for Turkish imports of premium heavy melting scrap 1/2 (80:20) fell to $289.75/mt CFR Monday, around $10/mt lower on week, while domestic ship scrap buying price in Turkey fell further on Monday to as low as $282/mt. Some major Turkish mills also pulled down their domestic scrap buying prices further on Tuesday, Platts learned.

Kardemir opened its billet order book Tuesday morning with Lira 35/mt lower prices compared to its list prices announced on January 14. The company set its lira-denominated domestic sales price for 150x150x6-12 S235 billet at Lira 2,460/mt ($415/mt) ex-works, and 150x160x6-12 III-A billet at 2,490/mt ($420/mt) ex-works as of Jan 21.

Kardemir' latest billet price cut put pressure on other Turkish mills' billet prices as well as on CIS mills' imported billet offer prices to Turkey, which are currently higher than Kardemir's new billet list prices on a CFR basis.

Kardemir's new list price for rounds was also down by Lira 25/mt to Lira 2,602/mt ($439/mt) ex-works Tuesday, while 12-32 mm rebar fell to Lira 2,585 ($436/mt) ex-works.

Kardemir's new rebar list prices will probably also put pressure on other Turkish mills' rebar pricing, which have been generally at $440/mt ex-works and above in recent days.

Kardemir also pulled down its 5.5 mm wire rod price by Llra 75/mt to Lira 2,800-2,890/mt ($472-$487/mt) ex-works Tuesday, depending on quality, while its 6-28 mm wire rod prices fell to Lira 2,755-2,825/mt ($465-$476/mt) ex-works.

Kardemir's list prices all exclude 18% VAT.


-- Cenk Can

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