Russia’s Severstal has continued to set ever-new records in its hot rolled coil (HRC) export pricing, supported by the demand coming from Europe, mainly from its northern region. After just having finished January production export sales with deals for 40,000 mt at $670-675/mt FOB Baltic Sea, as SteelOrbis reported yesterday, December 3, the mill has already started selling for February production.
According to sources, Severstal has just sold 20,000 mt of HRC for February rolling at $685/mt FOB (at €1 = $1.21). Having reached a new high, the supplier has left the market until next week and prices may firm up further if the exchange rate becomes even more favorable to export sales.
The prices of other HRC exporters from Russia, who are selling from the Black Sea, have been at around $650-655/mt FOB or $665-670/mt CFR in the latest offers to Turkey. Earlier this week, one of the mills traded around 40,000 mt to the same destination at $655/mt CFR and slightly above, which corresponds to around $640/mt FOB. However, market players believe that next week hardly any bids below $660/mt CFR will be workable in Turkey.