The flat steel market in Turkey has been rather quiet this week ahead of the approaching religious holiday - most buyers and some sellers are postponing their negotiations until early June, now preferring to wait and watch the price trends. The official Turkish domestic and export offers for HRC have hardly moved, supported by strong scrap prices and mills not being under much pressure to sell currently. In addition, the number of HRC import offers in Turkey is still scarce, basically being represented by China. However, market sentiment on the buyers’ side has softened over the past week.
Local HRC prices in Turkey are still mainly at $635-650/mt ex-works for July deliveries, while one of the mills has started to offer for August at $660/mt ex-works. Medium and large buyers are mainly looking to buy at $625-630/mt ex-works, but, according to sources, not many negotiations are underway this week. As regards exports, most offers are still reported at $630-645/mt FOB for July and August shipments. Offers to the EU have been reported at €595/mt CFR, without duty, while some sources have reported a deal for Turkish HRC at €675-685/mt DDP.
Import offers from China have settled at $555-560/mt CFR for HRC from second-tier mills and for July shipments, down from $560-570/mt CFR seen previously. Once again, Turkish buyers are not in a rush to book currently, aiming to evaluate demand and the price trends after the holiday.
Both Russia and Egypt are currently out of the market and are expected to give new prices to Turkey and the MENA/Mediterranean region in early June.
