Aggressive import offers for Indian origin hot rolled coils (HRC) remain the key negative factor in the Turkish market, creating a downward mood on the buyers’ side. However, although prices from India have dropped significantly over the past week, local Turkish mills and some CIS-based suppliers are not in a rush to cut offers and are trying to evaluate the situation.
According to sources, this week ex-India HRC offers have decreased by around $40/mt to $1,030-1,040/mt CFR for August shipments. Moreover, a few lots have been booked by various customers at down to $1,020/mt CFR. Overall, with last week’s bookings, India seems to have sold close to or a little over 100,000 mt by now. “It is not really clear for how long we will be having these aggressive offers from India but it seems they will become more reluctant to sell to Turkey once they are able to sell to the EU again,” a source told SteelOrbis.
In such a situation, Russian mills prefer to get some feedback from Turkish customers and are not in a rush to actively offer for July production as they realize that their prices should be quite far below $1,100/mt CFR. In the meantime, Ukraine’s Metinvest is reported to be negotiating at around $1,050-1,070/mt CFR depending on the coil weight, down $10/mt over the past week.
The behavior of local HRC mills in Turkey has been partially supporting the resistance of some CIS-based mills to lower their offers. Aiming to avoid sharp drops and also being in the market to sell HRC for October production, Turkish mills are still officially at $1,160-1,180/mt ex-works, with $10/mt discounts being possible. As regards exports, the lowest offers have been reported at $1,140-1,160/mt FOB while some mills are at $1,190/mt FOB still, most probably not being under much pressure to sell.