Hot rolled coil (HRC) pricing in Turkey has been firm this week, driven by some serious restrictions in available allocation, specifically in the local market. Ex-CIS offers have also been firm with some interest seen. In the meantime, scrap prices in Turkey have decreased significantly compared to early March, but no vivid impact on HRC prices has been seen just yet.
In the local market, offers are still at $850-870/mt ex-works base and some volumes have reportedly been traded to re-rollers at the higher end of the range. Buyers say there is no HRC availability from mills for June deliveries and all offers today are for July. Moreover, mills are pushing customers to place orders, saying that prices are set to increase again.
CIS-based HRC producers are in the market to sell for May production mainly. Russian mills, according to sources, are targeting $850/mt CFR, while earlier one of them was voicing $820-830/mt CFR, as SteelOrbis reported. The HRC supplier from Ukraine has been in the market with $830/mt CFR for small coils, with some deals reportedly done at $820/mt CFR. Other sources were saying the new targets of Metinvest may be as high as $840-850/mt CFR depending on the coil weight.
Aside from the CIS, offers from India have been reported at $830/mt CFR, being of little interest for the Turkish market due to the longer lead time. However, Indian suppliers have been focusing on the EU markets, where they have been negotiating $850-860/mt CFR due to a stronger local price situation.
