Turkish long steelmaker Kardemir has hiked its prices of bar sold in the domestic market as the lira weakened to a new record-low against the dollar, while scrap prices remain firm, Kallanish notes.

Effective 25 August, the company has raised the price of 12-22mm round bar to TRY 1,216/tonne ($415/t) from TRY 1,153/t. The price of 12-32mm rebar has been increased to TRY 1,199/t from TRY 1,136/t in its 7 August price list.

At the same time Kardemir has reduced its prices of profiles to $380-500/t from $420-515/t and pig iron to $285-359/t from $300-379/t in its previous price list. Billet and bloom prices have remained unchanged at $350-360/t and $463/t, respectively. All prices are on an ex-works basis and exclude 18% VAT.

The lira has depreciated to record lows against the dollar since last week when Turkey’s political parties failed to reach a coalition agreement and the Turkish central bank decided to keep interest rates unchanged. The currency declined to 2.92 per dollar on 24 August.

Despite the weak rebar market, scrap prices remained firm in the past week, but China-origin billet deals returned at lower prices to ease pressure on mills’ margins (see Kallanish 21 August).