The number of fresh hot rolled coil import offers is currently limited in Turkey as some suppliers have sold some sizeable lots over the previous two weeks, while some are taking their time to offer amid unclear market conditions. In particular, Russia’s NLMK is waiting and expected to make offers by next week as, having limited allocation, it would not be aiming to sell cheaply. Egypt’s Ezz Steel is offering at $495/mt FOB or at around $510/mt CFR to Turkey’s Iskenderun region for products to be shipped in May. The price is not considered workable.
In the import segment, Ukraine’s Metinvest has sold 20,000 mt of HRC for April production to Turkey at $475-477/mt CFR, while earlier the producer was aiming at $490/mt CFR, when business conditions were better. At around the same time, Turkey booked sizeable volumes from South Korea and Japan for April shipments at $480-490/mt CFR, as SteelOrbis reported earlier. In addition, up to 40,000 mt of potential HRC purchases were substituted by cold rolled full hard material orders from Asia at a competitive price.
The general expectation in the HRC market in Turkey is negative for now. On one side, Turkish mills have lost some sizeable orders to Asian suppliers, who have returned with aggressive prices to the Mediterranean region. European buyers being largely out of the market for sizeable import purchases has undermined Turkish mills’ positions significantly, leaving them not many choices of where to sell. On the other side, however, the allocation of ex-CIS HRC is to remain significantly limited for now, SteelOrbis understands.
