In addition to some hot rolled and cold rolled flat steel products booked by Turkey from South Korea and China, some sizeable volumes have been traded to Turkey from Japan for April shipments.
According to sources, at least one HRC lot of around 30,000 mt has been recently sold to Turkey at $480-485/mt CFR. Some sources state that one of the re-rollers, who purchased s 30,000 mt lot from South Korea at $455-460/mt FOB, has also paid s similar price to Japan, again for around 25,000-30,000 mt. “If so, it will be a combined shipment. Therefore, the freight will be $22-23/mt maximum,” one trader assumes. However, the information has not been fully confirmed by the time of publication. It is also worth mentioning that ex-China SS400 HRC is offered to Turkey at $500/mt CFR for June shipments, though without being workable.
In the cold rolled coil (CRC) segment, some additional volumes of full hard (CRFH) material have been booked. According to sources, Turkey’s Erdemir has purchased 20,000 mt from Japan at $490/mt FOB. The producer from time to time has a requirement for 2000 mm wide feedstock for its new coating line, while its pickling line is restricted to 1,650 mm only. “Erdemir sells coated [steel] from the new line to the automotive industry, so has to buy CRFH sizes from time to time. And now the price for it is good,” a trader told SteelOrbis. As was reported earlier, two of the Turkish re-rollers have purchased 36,000 mt of CRFH in total from China. The deals were fixed at the end of last week.
