Turkey’s hot-rolled coil (HRC) market has finally started to show cautious optimism since the earlier-provided discounts for flat products resulted in some domestic and export deals at the end of May. In the meantime, in the import segment, Turkey booked large volumes of ex-Russia HRC despite the risks, partly owing to the aggressive pricing and the absence of solid offers from alternative suppliers.
Particularly, according to sources, the Russian mill, which is not yet under sanctions, has sold up to 70,000 mt of HRC for June-July production to Turkey and a big part of the sales were at around $700/mt FOB, with around $40-50/mt in estimated freight. Currently, the mill is trying to increase the workable levels to $780-800/mt CFR, SteelOrbis has learned. The other two Russia-based suppliers are offering at $750/mt CFR, versus around $720/mt CFR in bids. “At least MMK will not be aggressive as they will not want to sell cheaply to re-rollers, which will then compete with their Metalurji,” a trading source told SteelOrbis. No firm offers have been heard from India and the sellers are reportedly collecting buyers’ price ideas. Some customers, however, have reported that the indicative offer ex-India is $800/mt CFR. China is also inactive since the FOB price of $740-750/mt for SS400 and freight of up to $90-100/mt do not match the workable price levels in Turkey.
In the domestic market, HRC prices are mainly at $820-830/mt ex-works and up to $840/mt ex-works, which is more or less in line with the levels last week. On exports, there has been rather lively activity since the past week. As a result, at least 80,000-85,000 mt of HRC were sold by Turkish mills to various markets, including southern and eastern Europe and North Africa. According to sources, most of the deals were closed at $805-820/mt FOB depending on the market and the size of the order. Still, the EU remains the most challenging destination for Turkish mills, who have 4.7-7.3 percent antidumping duties in this market. While Turkey was trying to not go below $800/mt FOB, some of the bids were reported at $750-770/mt FOB, SteelOrbis has learned.
In the coated steel segment, it seems that hot-dipped galvanized producers have been actively selling to the domestic and export markets since the past week. According to sources, Turkish re-rollers have managed to destock at around $900-940/mt ex-works base for HDG last week and returned to around $970-990/mt ex-works in the new offers. In the CRC segment, the current prices are at around $920-950/mt ex-works, versus $890-960/mt ex-works base. “It seems that the lowest levels last week are no longer heard, so it might mean that was the bottom,” a trader said.
