There has been a slight spike of the business activity in the local HRC market in Turkey, mainly connected with the mills’ price flexibility in small and medium lot sales. However, the overall demand remains rather dull and, according to sources, there is stock material on offer from some of the mills and for fresh production the January deliveries are still available, although not in huge volumes. In the meantime, import offers have somewhat softened once again towards the end of the week.
Currently, the official HRC offers in the domestic market are at $560-570/mt ex-works still, but a lot of buyers have reported the level of $550-555/mt ex-works has been available from some of the producers. Moreover, according to sources, one of the mills has been selling partial lots of stock HRC at as low as $520-530/mt ex-works. “Not many are after large volumes now since it is too risky, and for smaller lots, buying from domestic is better now. The price spread with imports is not huge, delivery is way closer and financially it is easier,” a Turkish producer told SteelOrbis.
Import offers for HRC from Asia are coming for February shipments and end-March delivery in the best case, which is not quite acceptable for Turkish buyers. The most recent offers for 45,000 mt and up lots of Q195 3 mm have been reported at $502-515/mt CFR with the lower end of the range considered to be for non-VAT trade. Earlier the general range for ex-China material stood at $505-520/mt CFR.
Russia remains active in the market, though one of the producers, the sanctioned one, favors sales to North Africa and has increased the offers from $500-510/mt CFR to $510-520/mt CFR. In Turkey, the level for the sanctioned material is indicative at $500/mt CFR versus around $480-490/mt CFR buyers’ price idea. In the meantime, non-sanctioned material from Russia is on offer to Turkey at $530-535/mt CFR with $525/mt CFR level also considered reachable, which is $5/mt down from earlier this week. “Russia is a good option because it is January production, but in Turkey not many will buy sanctioned HRC as there are only few buyers in Europe, who accept products with Russian feedstock origin,” a source told SteelOrbis.