Ex-Asia HRC offers are still numerous in the Turkish market, though most of the suppliers are not offering aggressive prices. One reason is that most of them are offering for January shipments and, given the lead times, Turkish buyers are not so interested in these cargoes, at least for now. Another reason is the cautious optimism seen in the European market, and so Asian mills have hopes to increase their deal prices to the EU, as well as to Turkey.
This week, ex-India offers from mills increased by around $15/mt to $585-590/mt CFR. Vietnam has been offering in the same price range for medium-sized lots but, according to some buyers, the seller is ready to go below $580/mt CFR for 40,000-50,000 mt lots. China has remained at $570-580/mt CFR for January shipments.
The most aggressive HRC offers are coming from a sanctioned Russian supplier, at at $540-550/mt CFR. The previous bookings had been closed at $520-535/mt CFR, as SteelOrbis reported earlier. Later on, there was an attempt to increase the offers to $560/mt CFR but this failed. Another Russian mill is ready to discuss around $580/mt CFR, sources say.
In the meantime, domestic HRC prices in Turkey have remained at $620-640/mt ex-works, in line with last week. “The demand is there but it is not great. We are selling but it is rather hard to trade large volumes,” a seller said.