The decision to impose provisional anti-dumping duties on hot rolled coil imports from Turkey may only leave one mill, Habas, being able to supply HRC to the EU, “…like Severstal is the only mill that can supply from Russia,” market sources told Kallanish in the wake of the news circulating in the market on Thursday.
Habas’ prices are traditionally the lowest out of all Turkish mills, due to a number of quality and terms specifics. It received a lowest provisional duty rate of 4.8%, as compared to 7.6% given to another prominent Turkish exporter Colakoglu. Both mills were selling in the export market in the last quarter, with buyers taking on the “…importer of record” status in case duty is implemented, at a 3-5% rate. Given the increasing prices, and a higher than expected duty, sources calculate at least a $30/tonne discount needed on Colakoglu material at current price levels to be able to compete. And considering prices are rising almost daily, this discount will widen too, they note.
Colakoglu ceo Ugur Dalbeler told Kallanish that in the company’s experience, the EU commission is no different in its approach to the US DOC. “
The US set us a duty in 2017, we worked in the courts for three years and zeroed it,” he says. He adds that the calculation methods appear to have been distorted, and appear to be protecting particular companies by any means. “We have seen how much the EU has contributed to the issue in the last two years. We have expressed our concerns, and we hope the commission’s hesitation in replying will disappear. No company deserves these rates. We will continue to persevere,” he adds.
Indeed, in the EU there is a strong push from buyers to preserve the historical Turkish trade. Turkish imports guarantee competitive quality, delivery times and pricing, one tells Kallanish, emphasising the current paradigm of a shortage of material from domestic suppliers. Turkish counterparts were moderate about the situation, suggesting the two mills will simply replace each other in export and domestic markets, with Habas selling more to Europe and Colakoglu – in the domestic and non-EU markets.
Offers to the EU are at $740/t fob ($800/t delivered, duty paid) from the mill and $750-760/t fob from traders. It is understood the producer is about to revise its offers upwards again, being one of a few mills that are able to deliver to Europe in April, and considering the leading European producer’s price increase to €700/t ($859/t) on Thursday. Asian supply is available at $800-820/t cfr, but for May delivery, and Russian at $810/t cfr for Northern European distribution hubs for late April/early May loading.
