Hot rolled coil (HRC) prices remain under pressure in Turkey due to the low activity of buyers, slower exports, and the pre-holiday mood. In addition, India is again in the market with aggressive offers, which have affected ex-CIS prices. Still, although import offers have declined, local mills have been trying to avoid large discounts and, despite some decreases, the gap with local prices in Turkey remains large. The mood in the market is mainly a downward one.
Ex-India offers this week have been reported in a rather wide range in Turkey. The lowest one was from the non-regular and most probably not preferred supplier at $940/mt CFR, while the others were at $960-980/mt CFR, SteelOrbis has learned. In such a situation, CIS-based sellers have felt pressure and have decreased their prices by around $20/mt over the past week. According to sources, the official offer from MMK is at $950/mt CFR, while $5-10/mt lower levels are considered workable. NLMK is expected to finalize its offers at around $960-970/mt CFR, buyers believe. Ukraine’s Metinvest is officially at $960/mt CFR for small coils, although a few discussions have been reported at $930/mt CFR.
In the local market, offers have decreased by around $10-20/mt over the past week depending on the mill to $1,050-1,070/mt ex-works. Mills have been mainly resisting providing discounts, being well sold out, and have some time to wait. It is worth mentioning that MMK Metalurji, which has been successfully working for the restart of its HRC production, has started to sell the product after a break lasting years. Moreover, the mill has almost closed its sales for September production, which were planned at around 30,000 mt in total. The most recent deals have been closed at $1,080/mt ex-works base, SteelOrbis has learned.