Demand for flat steel in Turkey failed to improve in June even after the United States halved its import tariffs for Turkish steel to 25%, market participants told Fastmarkets.
And local producers have now filled their order books until late August, they said on Wednesday July 3. Turkish steel prices started to rise on May 17 after US import duties of 50% introduced in August 2018 were cut to 25%. However, demand failed to support the price increases and prices fell in June. In addition, the first week of June was Eid al-Fitr holiday in Turkey, when trading was close to zero. Crude steel output Turkey produced 14.297 million tonnes of crude steel in January-May 2019, down 9.97% from the 15.880 million tonnes produced in the first five months of 2018, according to the Turkish Steel Producers Association (T???oeD). Billet production was 8.800 million tonnes in January-May 2019, 17.84% down on the 10.711 million tonnes produced in the first five months of 2018. Slab production, however, reached 5.497 million tonnes in the first five months of 2019, up by 6.35% year-on-year from 5.169 million...