While most of the ex-CIS hot rolled coil (HRC) producers are evaluating their price positions and allocation for July production, some of the mills have already started selling, to the Mediterranean region specifically.
Turkey’s buyers have reacted positively to the HRC offers from Ukraine and last week booked 20,000 mt of small coils at $375-377/mt CFR and 15,000 mt of big coils at $385/mt CFR, both for July production. The deals were closed pretty much in line with supplier’s targets for the new round of sales and by around $10/mt above the deal levels for June production to Turkey. Some of Russia’s suppliers are aiming at $395/mt CFR, SteelOrbis has learned, up by around $5-10/mt over the two weeks.
Overall, despite that Turkey remains positive as the mills’ offers are largely set at around $415-440/mt FOB/ex-works, a lot of market players have doubts that the uptrend would be sustainable. The key reason is that the EU has not been buying from Turkey due to uncertainty with the antidumping investigation and possible retroactivity of the duty.
A mill from Ukraine has been also active in sales to North Africa as around 10,000 mt were sold last week at $385/mt CFR for small coils, SteelOrbis has learned.
