Russian steel company MMK, which decided to restart the hot end of its Turkish subsidiary MMK Metalurji and started commissioning work in May, has started trial production at the mill, S&P Global Platts learned from an industry source July 9.
Following the trial production, the company is aiming to start sales to the market as of the beginning of September, the source said.
A service center manager also said the company has already started to take hot-rolled coil orders for late August deliveries with prices around other Turkish mills’ offer prices.
Turkish mills have been offering HRC to the domestic market generally at $1,080-$1,120/mt ex-works for October, depending on producer and tonnage, but discounts could be available.
With the entrance of MMK Metalurji to the HRC market, the competition in the domestic market is expected to rise.
MMK Metalurji’s casting and rolling module comprises an electric arc furnace and a compact hot strip mill with an overall capacity of 2.3 million mt/year, idle since November 2012.
The company is aiming to raise the capacity gradually in line with market requirements. Once MMK’s hot end module is restarted and ramped up to capacity, MMK expects to be able to produce 2 million mt/year of HRC.
The company could sell around half its HRC production to the market while using the other half for its own requirements, as MMK Metalurji has a 1.2 million mt/year continuous pickling line, a 750,000 mt/year cold-reversing mill, a 900,000 mt/year hot-dip galvanizing line and a 400,000 mt/year color-coating line.
— Cenk Can