Hot rolled coil (HRC) price levels in Turkey’s market have not changed much over the past two weeks, mainly supported by relatively full order books, rebounding scrap prices, the lack of aggressive import offers and some sales in the domestic market. Along with their interest in local HRC, Turkish buyers have revealed interest in Egyptian and Chinese material, and the firm market situation has allowed the suppliers avoid discounts.
Turkey’s domestic HRC pricing is still at $700-720/mt ex-works levels for end of February-March deliveries, in line with the levels of late December. Trade has overall not been too active, but a couple of deals have been closed domestically. According to sources, a 30,000 mt purchase was closed by a pipe-maker at around $710-720/mt ex-works, but most probably the price includes regular extras. Another 10,000 mt deal to a different customer was closed at the lower end of the price range, SteelOrbis has learned.
In the export segment, sales activity has been dull, mainly due to slack interest from the EU. Turkey is offering HRC for export at $680-700/mt FOB, while the European import price idea is at $650-660/mt FOB, sellers say. Some interest in smaller volumes exists from Ukraine, Macedonia and some North African countries, but no actual deals have been reported.
Earlier in January, an Egyptian mill had sold at least 20,000 mt of HRC to a trader for a Turkish pipe-maker and the final price has been reported at $705-707/mt CFR base. “It is high, but Egypt is close [in terms of lead time], it is exempt from import tax, and there is no AD threat as is the case with China,” a trader told SteelOrbis. In addition, as reported earlier, some of the Egyptian size and grade extras are lower compared to those of Turkish HRC producers.
Import offers from China for Q195 HRC of 3 mm and higher have been relatively stable for the third week in a row mainly at $615/mt CFR for February shipments. There has been some interest from Turkish pipe-makers and at least one lot of 20,000 mt was booked at the end of the past week for a breakdown containing higher steel grades, Si controlled, thin gauge, etc. The estimated base price for such deals is at around $625-628/mt CFR, sold by a first-tier Chinese mill, sources say. More deals may be heard to pipe-makers, while re-rollers are mainly silent these days, partly due to some overbookings done earlier, but also due to slack sales of their own products.
Currently, the official prices for hot dip galvanized (HDG) coils in Turkey are at $910-940/mt and up to $960-970/mt ex-works in some cases, which is relatively stable over the past week. However, the suppliers agree that the actual workable price for the material in the domestic market is closer to $880-910/mt ex-works and for export at $860-880/mt FOB, versus $880-920/mt FOB in offers. Turkey’s local PPGI prices are now at $1,000-1,040/mt ex-works and up to $1,060-1,080/mt ex-works from some re-rollers. The higher levels are certainly not workable, but it is also doubtful that mills would go below $1,000/mt ex-works for PPGI. In the CRC segment, the official offers are at $840-870/mt ex-works, up from $820-845/mt ex-works earlier, sources report.