Demand for cold rolled coil (CRC) in Turkey remains sufficient, while the allocation on the suppliers’ side becomes more and more limited. As a result, re-rollers have further increased their local offers, also being supported by the positive situation in the feedstock market. However, some sources evaluate the increasing gap between the HRC and CRC prices as a potential problem and the sign of the market being somewhat overheated.
While at the end of last week local CRC offers were at $720-730/mt ex-works, today most re-rollers are voicing $745-760/mt ex-works for February production. Suppliers report that demand remains active and that supply in the market is scarce, which helps them to remain bullish. Some of them are even voicing $770/mt ex-works. “Even with the lowest CRC price, the gap with the HRC levels is around $140-160/mt now, while normally it is around $100/mt or so,” a trader told SteelOrbis. The allocation is tight also as there is almost no possibility for the buyers to import as most CIS-based mills are not in the market to sell, while Asian sellers are busy with the sales in their region.
