Steel market players in Turkey’s hot rolled coil (HRC) segment have been closely watching China’s return after its long holiday to understand market sentiment better in order to make some business decisions. China initially opened positively after its holiday, but later offers have been corrected downward. In the meantime, Turkish mills have increased their HRC offer prices, having concluded some sales in the previous week, according to reports.
On the first day following the holiday, China increased its offer price to Turkey by around $20/mt to $585/mt CFR on average. However, as of October 9 the price has been adjusted back to $560/mt CFR. The offers are for 40,000-45,000 mt cargoes of Q195 grade HRC of 3 mm and higher.
Turkish domestic HRC producers have increased their offers for end-of-November and early December deliveries, having already sold some decent quantities overall in the past week within the range of $590-615/mt ex-works base depending on the tonnage and lead time. Currently, most suppliers are offering at $620-630/mt ex-works base. Although there is not much interest seen from buyers in these levels, the Turkish mills do not seem to be in a rush to stimulate sales for now. “It is time to wait and see where China stabilizes and it should be at lower levels than currently. There is not enough demand to absorb such an increase, not here in Turkey, not in the EU, not in the Middle East,” a market player commented. As regards exports, Turkey has started indicating $600/mt FOB base for December shipments, up from $585-600/mt FOB seen earlier.
