Turkish mills turned out to be unable to stick to the indicative official hot-rolled coil (HRC) offers, which were announced before the holiday. Taking into account the slow demand, domestic financial issues and less active restocking due to the recently announced tax increase. As a result, the producers have provided medium discounts in order to spur some buying but the customers are hoping for more.
The domestic HRC offers in Turkey have slid by $10/mt over the week to $670-690/mt ex-works for September deliveries. In the export segment, the official offers have declined by the same amount to $630-640/mt FOB. However the interest in the Turkish origin is low, even despite a certain positive movement seen in the European market. “Asian suppliers still can win a customer over our offers. Before the holiday there were some sales from Turkey at $600-605/mt FOB and I guess this should be the price today too,” a trader said.
The suppliers of ex-China HRC to Turkey have decreased their offers by $10/mt over the week and are now at $580-590/mt CFR for 3 mm and up Q195 material. Some of the buyers, however, believe they might succeed in pushing down to $570/mt CFR for 30,000 mt lots. “No one is a buyer nowadays, I think people are trying to not pay above $555-560/mt CFR or so,” a trading sources told SteelOrbis.
India is also in the market with $610/mt CFR offers mainly for September shipments, while the latest transaction was closed for a small volume at $592/mt CFR.
Russia is still not offering actively due to the limited allocation and the relatively livelier domestic sales. However, some of the sources evaluate the possible indications at $530/mt CFR for the sanctioned material and at $560-570/mt CFR for a non-sanctioned one.