Turkish hot rolled coil (HRC) importers have been exerting some sizeable pressure on the prices of suppliers who have been trying to resist for now. In particular, according to market sources, the official offers of Russian steelmaker MMK’s big coils for November production have been voiced at $410-415/mt CFR, while buyers believe the producer might agree to sell at $405/mt CFR. However, bids to the producer were at $395/mt CFR and have been rejected for now.
Ukraine’s Metivest International S.A., according to the sources, has not been giving any firm offers to the Turkish market, while previously it did not plan to go below $405-410/mt CFR for November production. No sales have been disclosed to the market just yet as bids to the producer were coming at $380/mt CFR and below. “Those bids are ridiculous even in a market negative like this. I would expect Ukraine at $390-395/mt CFR, not much lower,” a trader told SteelOrbis.
In the meantime, it has been reported that Russia’s NLMK sold some November allocation at $420-425/mt CFR Turkey earlier, with no fresh levels heard as offered to re-rollers.