The new week has started at a relatively positive note in Turkey’s HRC market and mills have been trying to push prices up further, citing higher scrap prices and insisting that flats allocation is now reduced. In addition, the recently announced AD results particularly against Egypt, but also against Vietnam and Japan, have given Turkish mills some room since now their own competitiveness in the European market has increased.
In the domestic market, local HRC is mainly priced at $570-580/mt ex-works base, up slightly over the past week, while some mills are voicing indications at up to $590/mt ex-works and slightly above. Mills claim that most volumes for May production are sold out and that HRC is mainly offered for June deliveries. However, since demand has been modest lately, most sources believe some lots may still be allocated for May. “Mills are not working at full capacity and medium lots may still be available for a shorter lead time, but not huge volumes. It is a usual thing done by producers to support the positive sentiment in the market,” a trader told SteelOrbis.
In the export market, most offers are at $565-575/mt FOB for May shipments. Turkish mills hope now to improve their sales position in the EU market since their own AD duties in Europe are lower than the ones recently announced particularly for Egypt. “It will certainly be harder for Egypt to compete in the EU now, but then again Algeria will step up. Duties for Japan and Vietnam are also sizeable, which will slow down their sales. However, zero duty for India is not inspiring news,” a market source said.
Import offers from China have rolled back to $488-492/mt CFR for full cargoes of Q195 HRC of 3 mm and higher for May shipments, while some of last week’s indications were above $500/mt CFR. According to sources, a cargo might have been booked by a re-roller in the middle of last week at $480-485/mt CFR, but the information has not been fully confirmed by market sources. Egypt and Russia are currently not offering to Turkey, being sold out for the first half of April, as SteelOrbis reported.