CIS-based HRC suppliers from the Black Sea region have been aiming to increase their offers for April production, mainly driven by costlier scrap prices and the generally positive mood in Turkey. In addition, the situation in China has been positive, providing support for CIS-based mills too. According to sources, NLMK has been aiming to sell at $735/mt FOB, with the potential to increase prices. In the meantime, the latest price from MMK has been voiced at $725/mt FOB and some demand has been received from Turkey at this level. Ukraine’s Metinvest has taken a step back in order to evaluate the market situation. The supplier is expected to increase its prices by $10-15/mt this week on top of around $715/mt FOB voiced as an offer for small coils to Turkey at the end of last week.
HRC from Russia’s Severstal remains the most costly of all the CIS-based mills’ HRC, taking into account that the company is focused on cooperation with EU-based buyers, who have been facing tight supply and high prices locally in Europe. Recently, Severstal has managed to trade around 50,000 mt of HRC for April production at $765-770/mt FOB Baltic Sea, more or less in line with the sales price for the remaining lots for March, which were traded around two weeks ago, as SteelOrbis reported. It is worth mentioning that Severstal is going to have a reduced HRC allocation for April production due to the scheduled maintenance at its rolling lines.
