The hot-rolled coil (HRC) market of Turkey has been filled with the discussions regarding the low-priced sales to the domestic customers, being a result of the pressure, coming from the decreasing raw materials, low flats demand, and very challenging HRC exports from Turkey itself. According to the estimations, the mills still have some limited volumes for October production to sell and are mainly trading for November shipments nowadays.
The official domestic HRC offers in Turkey are at around $1,000-1,020/mt ex-works, according to some mills. However, the recent drops in the raw materials, coupled with the slow demand for the flat products in Turkey and abroad, have been resulting in strong downward expectations. According to sources, Turkish mills have recently sold a total of around 20,000-30,000 mt of HRC locally at $950-975/mt ex-works, which is considered as an extremely low level according to the official indication. “The market today as a headless chicken, there is no clear price level since there is no demand and the expectation is mainly negative,” a producer told SteelOrbis. “We have around 10-15 days to generate decent demand, otherwise we might see a free fall,” he added.
In the export segment, offers from Turkey are at $980-1,000/mt FOB nowadays, $20/mt down over the week. Sources report a small lot has been sold lately at the higher end of the range.
Import offers from the CIS have decreased this week. According to the buyers, Russia’s MMK is at $930-935/mt CFR versus $950/mt CFR earlier. No sales have been reported as the most recent deals for the ex-Ukraine HRC have been closed at $920/mt CFR for small coils. Offers from Asia are there in the market but are not considered workable by Turkish customers. India is at $940-950/mt CFR while Vietnam’s indications are at $1,030/mt CFR, SteelOrbis has learned.
Despite that, most of the market factors are in favor of the prices to go further down in Turkey, some players have hopes for the export tax decision by China, expected to be announced next week. “We have been waiting for months now and if it happens it will provide the needed support to avoid the severe downturn,” a trader said.