Domestic hot rolled coil (HRC) prices in Turkey are once again under pressure from more aggressive import prices from China, where futures prices have dropped and the latest stimulus package is not considered strong enough to support a positive market mood. In addition, Turkey’s cold rolled (CR) and coated steel producers have continued to push for discounts on local and import HRC, while having once again had to cut prices for their own products.
Local HRC prices in Turkey are now at $610-615/mt ex-works officially, versus $610-620/mt ex-works last week. However, levels of $600/mt ex-works and even slightly lower are considered workable for serious buyers. The material is available for end-of-December and January deliveries. As for exports, sales to the EU have remained slow since buyers’ bids are much lower than mills’ offers at $570-590/mt FOB. Moreover, although $560/mt FOB is also considered workable by some suppliers for decent tonnages, there are still no takers, SteelOrbis understands.
Import offers from China have mainly been reported at $525-527/mt CFR for end-of-December shipments, down from $537-540/mt CFR at the end of last week. Some buyers have also reported $522/mt CFR for 45,000-50,000 mt lots and for Q195 grade HRC of 3 mm and higher.
According to some buyers, Russian mills are also in the market with $505/mt CFR for sanctioned material and around $540/mt CFR for non-sanctioned material, which is equal to $480-485/mt and $515-520/mt FOB Black Sea, respectively. The third Russian mill prefers to concentrate on the higher-paying North African destination where it has managed to sell around 120,000 mt of November production HRC with the latest deals closed at $520/mt CFR, as SteelOrbis has reported.