Turkish HRC market activity has become livelier recently as expected by many market players. First of all, decent demand has been seen for imports from certain destinations, and second of all, Turkish mills have finally seen some higher activity in the EU for their products and managed to trade sufficient volumes.
In Turkey, certain interest in HRC imports has been seen since the past week, particularly for the origins with the shorter lead time. In fact, Egypt sold around 20,000-30,000 mt of HRC to at $535-540/mt CFR for April shipments, which was followed by the offers at the lower end of the range. In addition, a non-sanctioned Russian mill has traded around 35,000 mt of HRC at $515/mt CFR, $5/mt up from the deals closed in the previous round. China's HRC offers became more clear this week at $490-495/mt CFR depending on the seller, $5-10/mt down from the end of the past week. Sources report there has been one large booking by a Turkish re-roller within the mentioned range or slightly below, but the details have not been disclosed by the time of publication.
On exports, Turkish mills have managed to sell sufficient volumes over the past couple of weeks. One mill, according to sources, traded around 50,000 mt of HRC to Southern EU at $575/mt CFR duty paid, which is around $525-530/mt FOB base, while the new offers from Turkey are at $530-540/mt FOB and those are considered workable. Particularly, another Turkish mill has sold decent volumes to both southern and northern parts of Europe within the mentioned range.
Turkey’s domestic HRC prices have been fluctuating in the range of $545-560/mt ex-works with some attempts to increase the prices, based on the sales portfolio and inching up scrap. However, the realistic level is still around $545-550/mt ex-works and slightly above, sources evaluate.
