Turkey’s hot rolled coil (HRC) market has remained largely affected by aggressive ex-China offers which kept on declining this week. Although many believe the offers may be close to the bottom and there is talk about some deals concluded, some buyers are still hesitant to restock. Turkish HRC offers in the domestic market have remained relatively stable officially, while for exports slight discounts seem to have been provided for large customers.
The current week had started with ex-China HRC offers at $525-535/mt CFR for Q195 material and for September shipments, further weakening to $520-528/mt CFR, marking a $12-15/mt decline from last week. At the end of last week, there were rumors regarding deals at $535/mt CFR and higher, which were subsequently confirmed. This week, there is information about one of the largest re-rollers having concluded a deal within the current range of offers, but many believe that the details of the transactions have been kept secret so far.
The low ex-China HRC offers are naturally having an impact on the Turkish HRC pricing and, although the mills have maintained their official positions, it is largely believed they are ready to offer a discount once there is a serious buyer. Officially, Turkish HRC is available at $570-580/mt ex-works, down $5/mt on the upper end of the range over the past week. Still, levels $5-10/mt lower are considered achievable, based on the pressure coming from the Chinese side. “With China at $520/mt CFR, the difference with local prices is $50/mt at least, which is still lower than the 13 percent duty, but no one pays it anyway. On the other hand, coated exports are quite slow now, so re-rollers may be pushing for even slightly lower import levels,” a source told SteelOrbis.
As for exports, official offer levels for September HRC shipments are at $570-580/mt FOB and, according to sources, over 40,000 mt were sold to North Africa, some Europe and Ukraine at $570-575/mt FOB. In addition, some of the market players have reported deals to southern part of the EU at around $565/mt FOB and maybe slightly below.
