Mills in Turkey have been voicing higher prices for HRC this week, citing costly import scrap as well as the sizeable export sales of hot rolled products as the main reasons for the uptrend. In addition, HRC import prices for Turkey are not aggressive amid the approaching Chinese holiday and generally stable market fundamentals. However, the new higher price levels are mainly remaining indicative particularly in the local market due to quiet demand and excessive stocks. In the meantime, Turkish mills are mainly selling for April deliveries locally and for April shipments for export.
In the domestic market, one of the Turkish mills has announced $600/mt ex-works for HRC, up from previous indications of $560-570/mt ex-works. Some other producers are at $570-575/mt ex-works, up $5/mt over the past week, while the more realistic offers are still at $560-565/mt ex-works. “High offers are not realistic. The buyers say they have high stocks and they need to digest them first. No one is actually talking about the workable price because mainly they are not ready to buy,” a Turkish producer told SteelOrbis. According to sources, the local retail hot rolled sheet prices in Turkey are now realistically at $580-600/mt ex-warehouse, reflecting a rather narrow gap versus local mills’ HRC indications.
As regards exports, Turkish mills are now indicating $560-570/mt FOB depending on the producer and its sales position. According to sources, within the past two to three weeks Turkey traded at least 200,000-250,000 mt of HRC to Europe due to the advantage of proximity and the lower CBAM costs for EAF-based HRC production in Turkey. Some sources evaluate the total volume of HRC exports to the EU from Turkish mills at around 300,000 mt and above, but the amount seems a bit on the high side. The reported deals started at $550-555/mt FOB and slightly below, and proceeded at $560-568/mt FOB, SteelOrbis has learned. Active export sales were expected since, even though there are a lot of risks, Turkey is still considered one of the best options, the EAF-based option of course.
Import offers from China have been reported at $495-500/mt CFR and slightly above, mainly for end-of-March and April shipments. Turkey’s interest in these seems to be on the low side and overall negotiations are slow amid the approaching Chinese holiday. The non-sanctioned Russian HRC supplier is evaluating its price positions and, according to buyers, is expected to announce around $500-505/mt CFR for April shipments. The sanctioned HRC is offered to Turkey for February-March shipments at $470-480/mt CFR depending on the mill.
