Hot rolled coil (HRC) producers in Turkey have once again increased their domestic offers, supported by strong raw material prices, limited imports and decent demand.
Currently, Turkish mills are in the market to sell HRC for November deliveries and are offering $530-540/mt ex-works base depending on the supplier. As a result, prices have firmed up by around $10/mt over the past week. Generally positive trends in HRC and raw material prices globally have become the key factor in the increase. In addition, the number of import HRC offers is still scarce and ex-CIS prices have again increased, as expected.
According to sources, Russia’s MMK is going to give its firm offers for September production later this week, but it seems that the mill has no intention to go any lower than $515/mt CFR. Last week, the producer was at $505-510/mt CFR, as SteelOrbis reported. Ukraine’s Metivest has reportedly been voicing $515-520/mt CFR for big coils, up from $510-515/mt CFR early last week. At the end of August, India was quoting $525/mt CFR for November shipments, while new offers are expected by Turkish buyers at $530-535/mt CFR but will be hardly workable, SteelOrbis understands.
In the export segment, most of Turkey's offers are at $515-520/mt FOB and the lower end of the range seems to have been achieved last week in sales to the EU and North Africa.