Turkey has been revealing a decent interest in imports of HRC due to some necessity to restock and, additionally, amid rather solid market expectations regarding the price trend. Currently, there are few factors in favor of a downturn in prices, while sentiments in the raw materials and semis segments have been rather positive. As a result, Turkish HRC buyers have decided to make purchases of several origins.
According to sources, one Turkish re-roller booked a 50,000 mt HRC lot ex-China from a second-tier mill at around $535-537/mt CFR, while offers at the time stood mainly at $540-545/mt CFR. This week, prices for ex-China material have gone up due to the rise in futures prices and the positive raw material trends, as well as better domestic demand. As a result, as of today the offers from second-tier Chinese mills are at $547-550/mt CFR, while the first-tier mills are mainly offering at $555/mt CFR and slightly higher. Ex-China HRC is available for June shipments.
While the Egyptian mill, according to sources, is still out of the market, focused on domestic sales, ex-Malaysia HRC indications for June shipments have been reported at $620-625/mt CFR or around $570-575/mt FOB. The lower end of the range is considered workable by some market players.
In addition, as expected, Turkish buyers have remained interested in HRC from Russia due to its geographical proximity and the possibility of booking in smaller lots. According to sources, the latest official indications for the non-sanctioned material stood at $580/mt CFR for June shipments, while the deals were mainly closed at $570-575/mt CFR and slightly below (at the start of the sales). Market players evaluate the total amount of bookings as 60,000 mt minimum.
In the domestic market in Turkey, the current offers for June-July deliveries are at $635-650/mt ex-works, up $5-10/mt from the slight decline seen last week. “Demand is a bit slow. Everyone is counting the risks, so the [price] is where it is more due to high costs and cautious monetary expectations, and is not fully supported by demand,” a source told SteelOrbis. As regards exports, Turkey continues to stick to $630-640/mt FOB offer levels for June-July shipments.
