Demand for flat steel products in Turkey was moderate in May because of low stocks in the country and the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, market participants told Fastmarkets on Wednesday June 3.
Turkish flat steel producers were fully booked until late July and have started to accept orders for August production.
Steel trading was limited in May because of various curfew orders and national holidays, but producers still filled their order books.
The curfew orders covered weekends in 31 cities in May, as well as May 18-19 (for a national holiday) and May 25-26 (for the Islamic Eid Al-Fitr celebrations to mark the end of Ramadan), in the country's attempt to slow the spread of Covid-19.
Several carmakers stopped production in March and April but
most of them have since resumed.
Scrap prices increased during May. Fastmarkets' daily index for
steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), US origin, cfr Turkey, was $256.60 per tonne on May 29, rising from $242.42 per tonne on May 1.
Crude steel output
Turkey produced 11.22 million tonnes of crude steel...