All Turkish flat steel prices increased sharply in December 2020, and the market was expected to remain steady in January because of globally strong demand for steel products, Fastmarkets heard on Wednesday January 6.
Turkish hot-rolled coil producers were fully booked until April, and market participants believed that buying would remain strong in January, provided that prices remained firm.
Globally, all steel prices have recently hit their highest levels for at least two years, and were still going up because of strong demand in China, which has more than a 50% share in global production and trade.
Fastmarkets' daily
steel hot-rolled coil index, export, fob main port China, was $673.33 per tonne on January 6, compared with $588.68 per tonne on December 1 last year.
The price went as high as $702.96 per tonne on December 22, but fell back to $653.25 per tonne fob on December 30 on low trading. But it started to rise again with the start of 2021.
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