No major change in Turkey’s local HRC pricing has been seen for several weeks now since the volume of daily business activity, coupled with mainly non-aggressive import offers and slightly higher scrap prices, has been allowing mills to avoid discounts. On the other hand, the pace of local sales and current export activity is still not enough to support any dramatic price increase in Turkey’s offers. In the import segment, some activity has been seen, while prices have continued to fluctuate slightly.
The latest import HRC offers from China for Q195 3 mm and up material have been reported in Turkey at $477-482/mt CFR for non-VAT, while the regular offers have been mainly at $490/mt CFR. Sources reported a sale of around 15,000-20,000 mt of HRC to a pipe-maker, while the price level has not been disclosed but has been alleged by the sources to be above $505/mt CFR effective. The initial indications for HRC pipe-making breakdowns in Turkey stood at $515-520/mt CFR effective.
In addition, according to sources, Egypt has traded up to 20,000 mt of HRC to Turkey at $547/mt CFR. The lots are for January shipments, following the supplier’s rather long absence from the market. Malaysia, according to sources, has been indicating offers for January shipments at $545/mt CFR, with no takers heard of yet.
In addition, Russia continues offering for December production at around $470-475/mt CFR for the sanctioned material and at $490/mt CFR officially for the non-sanctioned material. Buyers assume $5-10/mt discounts are possible.
The prices for the Turkish origin HRC have been quite stable for a while now. Locally, some of the mills have started offering for January deliveries and the allocation for December is considered overall to be limited in the market. The official offers are still at $540-550/mt ex-works, but $5/mt discounts are considered easily available especially in case of the complicated order breakdown. Some mills, however, voice their initial offers at $555/mt ex-works, which is not considered workable. Turkey’s HRC export offers are realistically at $530-540/mt FOB for December-January shipments, stable over the past week.
