Turkish hot rolled coil (HRC) producers remain bullish particularly in the domestic market, inspired by the significant rise in import scrap prices. Although the uptrend for scrap may come to an end in the coming weeks, mills have increased their HRC prices further this week, but the new offers still seem to be gaining acceptance. It is worth mentioning that surging import slab prices also provide support for the strong HRC pricing in Turkey. However, most of the market players believe that in the domestic market the workable prices may not go too far beyond the current offers, taking into account much lower acceptable export levels. In the import segment, there is still basically only China present and its offer and deal prices are much lower that Turkish mills’ domestic targets.
Currently, the domestic HRC prices in Turkey are at $700-710/mt ex-works for February deliveries and even $720/mt ex-works is voiced for early March. Earlier this week, the offers stood at $680-700/mt ex-works, following deals at $415/mt CFR for scrap. Now when prices have climbed to $421-428/mt CFR in numerous deals, HRC mills are not eager to deal at below $700/mt ex-works. As for exports, however, the offers are lower since they are restricted by the workable levels in Europe mainly. The levels are at $665-670/mt FOB, while the latest small deals to the south of the EU and Ukraine have been reported at $650-665/mt FOB, SteelOrbis has learned.
Import offers for Chinese HRC in Turkey are at $610-617/mt CFR for Q195 of 3 mm and higher, while last week deals for a total of at least 95,000 mt were closed at $602-605/mt CFR for Q195 material and $615-618/mt CFR for SAE1006. Egypt is expected to give some offers at around $690/mt CFR to Turkey, which is line with its recent sales of 30,000 mt to the south of the EU. Egypt, according to sources, has lately purchased 35,000 mt of HRC from Russia at $610/mt CFR. In Turkey, the price idea for sanctioned Russian material has been lower than $600/mt CFR and not workable for the mill.