Hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices in Turkey have remained so far stable as compared to the previous week as the mills prefer to avoid significant discounts and are watching the market. In addition, there is a partial effect from the low competition in the import segment, taking into account that only some of the CIS-based suppliers have started to announce their offers for January, while others are expected to offer for limited availability only.
In the import segment, Ukraine’s Metinvest has placed an offer for January production at $830-840/mt CFR for small coil with around $10/mt higher levels estimated for big coils. The latest deals in the previous round of sales were closed at $850-855/mt CFR, as SteelOrbis reported. Russian HRC mills, who are traditional suppliers to the Turkish market, are taking their time to announce firm offers. NLMK is foreseen to target $850-855/mt CFR and above, while MMK, according to sources, has indicated there will be no January export allocation widely available and that it is ready to offer for February. “They have sold large lots to local pipemakers and also [earlier] good volumes were traded to Vietnam,” a market source told SteelOrbis. As a result, the import market in Turkey as of now is not feeling much pressure. Other than the CIS, only India is present with $870-880/mt CFR in offers and this level is not seen as workable.
The domestic HRC prices in Turkey are still at $870-900/mt ex-works base for February deliveries, stable over the past week. Some mills are voicing their official offers at $900/mt ex-works. On exports, taking into account the absence of sales to the EU, some aggressive levels have started to be heard in the market. According to sources, a decent HRC volume has recently been sold to North Africa at $840/mt FOB, versus $850-875/mt FOB offer levels reported during the past week.