Turkish hot-rolled coil (HRC) producers are still squeezed between insufficient demand in the domestic market particularly and the increased costs of production, which prevent them from meeting buyers bids. Still, some limited discounts were provided over the week. In the meantime, there have not been many offers in the import HRC segment.
The domestic HRC offers in Turkey have moved down by $20/mt over the week, marking $660-670/mt ex-works as the lowest level, while some of the mills are at $680-690/mt ex-works. One of the mills is at $705/mt ex-works officially, but this level is not considered as a workable one. “I think nowadays mills are limited by the increased costs to around $670/mt as the lowest they can give and have some small margin for themselves,” a large trader said.
Export prices for Turkey’s HRC are now ranging at $680-700/mt FOB for October production, while some of the traders say $670/mt FOB levels are also achievable. In the meantime, the destinations like Bulgaria reported they receive offers at $700-710/mt FOB, while lower levels are mainly available for Italy and Spain as they are the larger sales outlets. Still, most of the EU buyers are reluctant to deal for the Turkish origin since they receive more attractive offers from Asian suppliers, particularly for large volumes.
In the import segment, the latest offers from India have been reported at $650-665/mt CFR depending on the mill while earlier market players reported some medium-sized deals were closed at $610-620/mt CFR. Russian suppliers seem to be out of the market for now. NLMK, according to the market information, has decided to withdraw HRC offers to Turkey due to limited availability. Severstal has taken a pause after trading around 30,000 mt of HRC in total for October shipment with the highest deals reported at $620-625/mt CFR.
