The Turkish hot rolled coil (HRC) market has exited the holiday period with relative stable prices. While the low demand so far and the absence of an uptrend in the import scrap segment prevent Turkish mills from increasing their flats offers, at least for now, the relatively high price levels of import offers support their latest announced prices.
According to sources, domestic HRC prices in Turkey are now at $680-700/mt ex-works, which is in line with the reasonable official offers last week. In addition, before the holiday some of the mills voiced $705-710/mt ex-works, which was considered as “trying to make an upward statement to the market.” As regards exports, the average HRC price indication is at $650/mt FOB, up $10/mt over the past week.
The import offers from China have remained relatively stable at $590-595/mt CFR and up to $600/mt CFR. However, some sources still assume $585/mt CFR levels may still be achievable. There has also been talk about 5,000 mt of HRC traded from India at $595/mt CFR, while earlier the mills were targeting $620/mt CFR Turkey minimum. Russian mills are still inactive in terms of HRC exports due to maintenance-related limited availability. However, the recently seen sharp currency devaluation in Russia, which is foreseen to continue, may trigger more export interest among the Russian mills. However, the producers comment they may have steel slab allocation instead of HRC, given the limited flats supply and the decent domestic demand in Russia.
