After the holiday, Turkey’s hot rolled coil (HRC) market has witnessed more price decreases. One reason is the rather sharp drop in offer prices from China, while another is the lower scrap price levels in deals last week. As a result, HRC offers from Turkish mills have dipped as well. The number of negotiations has been minimal and it is generally believed that for now buyers will resist concluding deals for significant tonnages.
According to sources, at least two mills are offering HRC to the local market at $755-770/mt ex-works, while in the past week the general price level settled at $780-800/mt ex-works. The majority of offers are for June production and early July deliveries. Some producers have preferred to maintain their previous levels, waiting for demand to appear in order to start negotiations. As regards exports, mills’ price levels have decreased further by $10/mt to $740-760/mt FOB, with no deals reported due to falling ex-Asia offers.
In the import segment, a few offers from China settled at $610-620/mt CFR for Q195 material, SteelOrbis has been informed. This level is now considered to be “unnecessarily low” as the latest 30,000-35,000 mt deal early last week was closed at $635/mt CFR. Prior to that, a similar lot had been closed at $647/mt CFR, as SteelOrbis reported. It is worth mentioning that some of the large regular HRC sellers from China to Turkey may still aim for higher levels of around $625-635/mt CFR. The latest ex-Russia HRC offers, according to sources, have been set at $670/mt CFR, with the potential to decrease by $10-20/mt during negotiations.
