The pace of the price uptrend in Turkey’s hot-rolled coil (HRC) has slowed down significantly this week with most local mills remaining more or less on their positions, although some of them have tried pulling offers up further. One factor is that buyers have needed to evaluate the sustainability of the trend and whether they can reflect higher HRC in the prices for their finished products. Another issue is that the number of import offers has increased this week with more of them coming from Asia.
Domestic HRC prices in Turkey have remained at $950-960/mt ex-works minimum, while some suppliers have started to target $970/mt ex-works and above. Mainly May production volumes are on the table, while demand for these seems to be lagging behind. “I don’t believe there are active sales for May at the mentioned price levels, but the market is chaotic today. We could see anything tomorrow,” a trader said.
Import offers from the CIS have still been at $930-940/mt CFR from Ukraine and have moved up by $20/mt in one offer from Russia to $950/mt CFR and another mill has been offering at $930-940/mt CFR depending on the sales channel. Ex-India offers have been at $930-935/mt CFR with some deals reported at $920-930/mt CFR. In addition, there have been HRC offers from Indonesia to Turkey, which is extremely rare. According to sources, a 10,000-15,000 mt lot has been sold this week at $905/mt CFR and the offer rose further to $920-925/mt CFR.
In the coated and cold-rolled coil (CRC) markets in Turkey, offers have increased over the past week, but, according to sources, trade has not been too active and the actual workable prices are still at lower levels. The official offers for hot-dip galvanized (HDG) coils have risen by $20/mt to $1,200-1,240/mt ex-works base, although the previous offer levels are considered by buyers to be the workable ones. The domestic pre-painted galvanized iron (PPGI) prices have been set at $1,300-1,320/mt ex-works base, more or less in line with the levels of last week. In the meantime, in the CRC segment the official offers have increased by $20-80/mt over the past week to $1,180-1,200/mt ex-works, partly owing to the limited allocation issue voiced by a few re-rollers.
