Turkish hot-rolled coil (HRC) producers have managed to avoid further price drops this week at least for now, although most of them are now offering at the levels available only from a few sources at the end of last week. The demand is reportedly slow and no sizeable orders are heard this week. Some of the mills are still offering for July deliveries while some have already started to try selling for August.
The domestic HRC prices in Turkey are at $780-800/mt ex-works base, in line with the levels late last week. Some buyers believe $770/mt ex-works might be there for 15,000-20,000 mt orders, while some believe $750-760/mt ex-works prices will be achievable very soon. One reason is the decreased scrap price, while local and particularly export demand is quite low. Some of the sources reported Turkey’s export prices for HRC are at $760-790/mt FOB, $30/mt down over the week, while bids from the rare customers are even lower than that. “I can say the market is not really good and it is not promising either,” a producer told SteelOrbis.
In the import segment, only India and Russia are still active in Turkey’s market, while other suppliers, particularly the Asian ones, are not considered competitive in terms of offers. An Indian mill still offers $770/mt CFR, the same as a week ago. As for Russians, MMK is said to be in the market at $730/mt CFR or $680/mt FOB, while Severstal is at $740-745/mt CFR, in line with the latest sales. NLMK is reportedly at $750/mt CFR, though some say the mill is not active in offers, being already sold out for shipments with near dates. However, some sources said there is material available at $700/mt CFR and this level was considered as a “good one” by some of the sellers according to the current market reality.
