Hot rolled coil (HRC) producers in Turkey have increased their domestic and export offers significantly over the past week, claiming that the allocation in the market is limited. In addition, some of them are trying to reflect the positive situation in China in their own pricing. Import offers, from the CIS specifically, have also gone up as the mills there are to start July shipment sales shortly.
Turkish mills have increased their offers by around $10-20/mt depending on the producer to $400-420/mt FOB for exports and around $410-420/mt ex-works for the local market. Some of them, according to sources, have been aiming at levels $10-15/mt higher. The mills say that the allocation being limited for July deliveries is one of the key reasons for the uptrend. Others report that last week some sales were closed to the domestic market at around $390-405/mt ex-works base. Market insiders, however, doubt that the new levels will be easily absorbed by the market as the end-user side is still slow and as export demand is shaky.
It is worth mentioning that China being positive is given as one of the supportive factors for the uptrend. However, $415/mt CFR (around $380/mt FOB) bids from China to Turkey has reportedly been rejected by the mills. “China is not Turkish mills’ game. They should play as per the domestic and EU markets,” a trader told SteelOrbis.
CIS-based suppliers have also raised their offers to Turkey, being mainly sold out for June and trying to benefit from the bullish sentiment. Russia’s offers have been reported at $390/mt CFR minimum from one mill, $10/mt higher than last week. Ukraine’s Metivest has been selling big coils at $385/mt CFR since last week, $10/mt above the mid-May levels. The big coil offer remains valid, while small coils are priced at $380/mt CFR, versus around $365/mt CFR in deals closed within the past two weeks. Asian offers are still not workable as sellers remain concentrated on the trade inside their region. Indicative offers from South Korea have been reported at as high as $430-440/mt CFR.