The hot-rolled coil (HRC) suppliers in the Turkish market, including the domestic and overseas sellers, have further raised their offers this week. Although demand has been somewhat slow locally and sales have remained challenging for Turkish exports, the mills have increased prices, claiming they are sold out for the first quarter’s production. In the import segment, particularly ex-Asia offers have been pulled back partly due to the positive situation in the regional market and China leaving for its holiday period. In the meantime, Russia, which has been the lowest in the market for many months, is currently absent.
The official local HRC prices in Turkey are at $740-750/mt ex-works and some of the buyers report they have received indications at as high as $760-770/mt ex-works for April production. As a result, the offers have risen by $10-20/mt over the past week. Still, many believe that certain volumes for March production should be still available from the Turkish mills. The export offers have increased by around the same amount over the past week and are now standing at $720-740/mt FOB, SteelOrbis has learned.
Import offers have been mainly coming from Asia. The latest indications from China have been reported at $680-690/mt CFR, up from $675/mt CFR seen earlier. Ex-India prices have been reported mainly at $690-700/mt CFR from one of the mills and at around $675/mt CFR from another. Vietnam is at $680/mt CFR, versus $660/mt CFR seen two weeks back, while South Korea is at $700/mt CFR. The highest offer is reported to have been received from Indonesia at $720-740/mt CFR, while around a month ago the level stood at $660/mt CFR.
In addition to Asia, there are indications from Egypt at around $700-710/mt FOB with the estimated freight of around $20-25/mt for medium tonnages. The producer is said to be focusing on sales to the EU nowadays, which allows it to keep prices for other destinations at higher levels.
