The hot rolled coil (HRC) market in Turkey has remained positive with another price increase seen this week in local and import prices. Moreover, CIS-based mills have been reporting good demand and higher bids and have expressed their intention to increase their offers further. However, Turkey’s booming business activity may be somewhat restrained by the increasing financial risks connected to the ongoing currency fluctuations. In such a situation, buyers have become more and more cautious and are not buying whatever can be found in the market as was the case earlier.
According to sources, this week Ukraine’s Metinvest has sold medium-sized lots of HRC to Turkey at $910/mt CFR for big coils and later on similar levels were fixed for small coils too. The supplier has been trading its remaining volumes for May production and intends to increase prices next week.
Russia’s MMK has been taking its time to announce official offers for June production and prefers to evaluate the market situation. However, the producer is bullish and intends to test $920/mt FOB or $945-950/mt CFR Turkey. According to sources, some bids are heard at $920/mt CFR while at the end of last week MMK was in the market with $880/mt CFR.
In the local market, offers are at $920-940/mt ex-works, with offers up to $950/mt ex-works voiced to some buyers for August production.