Most CIS-based hot rolled coil (HRC) suppliers have started to announce their offers for November rolling for the Turkish market, while some of them claim to be pretty much sold out for production in the mentioned month.
Russia’s MMK is in the market with $515/mt CFR or around $500/mt FOB for big coils. The producer expects to allocate close to 200,000 mt of HRC for export destinations for November production. Still, some market players believe the figure might be changed according to the maintenance works’ process at mill 2500 following the recent fire.
NLMK is expected to disclose its offers shortly. Turkish market players foresee these to be at $525-530/mt CFR at the lowest and expect the overall allocation to be around 50,000 mt.
Another ex-Russia producer Severstal, according to sources, has traded over 80,000 mt of HRC for November production to various destinations. Most of the volumes were sold to the EU at up to $520/mt FOB for big coils, while a medium-sized lot of small coils was traded to Latin America at $500-505/mt FOB. In addition, around 20,000 mt of small coils were sold to Turkey at $485/mt FOB, which corresponds to around $515/mt CFR, SteelOrbis estimates. Severstal’s November allocation for small coils is larger this time as the mill 1700 is to become operational after maintenance, while the mill 2000 will be stopped for repairs in November.
Ukraine’s Metinvest decreased its offers to Turkey by around $10/mt over the past two weeks to $500/mt CFR for small coils and to $510-515/mt CFR for big coils, sources report.
Turkey’s HRC offers remain largely stable for now at $530-545/mt ex-works in the local market and at $535-540/mt FOB for export outlets. Some mills still have allocation for November shipments, but the majority of offers are for December deliveries, SteelOrbis understands.
It is worth mentioning that some buyers have inquired about large HRC lots from China with the offer set at $530-540/mt CFR base. Overall, the market is expected to remain quiet in Turkey until around mid-October as most market players would like to gain a clear picture of the market situation once China is back from its holiday.