Turkey’s HRC prices have slid this week, partly under the pressure from lower scrap prices and buyers’ bids. In the local market, offers have lost $5/mt to $525-535/mt ex-works depending on the producer. As regards exports, most of the mills are ready to deal at $525/mt FOB versus $530-535/mt FOB earlier. Some sellers, however, are expectedly negotiating at $515-518/mt FOB.
The size of the price declines in the local market in Turkey has not been significant enough to prevent import sales, from the CIS and for November production specifically. Since last week, some big lots of HRC for November production have been traded by Russia’s MMK at $500/mt CFR, $10-15/mt below the offers placed at the end of the previous month. According to market sources, NLMK had earlier traded close to 50,000 mt at $510-515/mt CFR. Ukraine’s Metivest has dropped its offers by $5/mt over the past week and sold some limited lots at $495/mt CFR for small coils and at $500-505/mt CFR for big coils.
There are some offers from Asia - at $550/mt CFR from South Korea and $555/mt CFR from India, SteelOrbis has learned. “No chance for those as they are much higher than the local prices,” a Turkish buyer said.