Some Turkish mills sharply cut HRC offer prices: sources

Some Turkish producers of hot-rolled coil reduced their offer prices significantly on April 29, sources told S&P Global Commodity Insights, as falling prices at Chinese mills and a slump in imported scrap pricing raised the pressure on Turkish mills amid a sluggish market.

Other producers, however, are still waiting to gauge market direction after the three-day Ramadan holiday starting May 2.

A large Turkish producer on April 29 began to offer HRC as low as $1,050/mt EXW for July rollings, a manager of a major Turkish pipe producer told S&P Global.

This is down more than $100/mt from HRC list prices from Turkish mills last week.

S&P Global’s assessed domestic HRC at $1,245/mt FOB on April 22.

A manager of a major Turkish HRC producer told S&P Global April 29 that it is not officially offering $1,050/mt EXW. “But we will accept it, if someone says he will buy it at that price,” he said.

An executive of another HRC producer said it has been exporting HRC at $1,100-$1,120/mt FOB, although it is not currently offering HRC to the domestic market as there is no ahead of Ramadan.

A service center manager said Russian mills were heard to be offering extremely low prices to Turkey. “They don’t have any other options for exports, besides Turkey and China,” the manager said. “So they are giving crazy prices to these countries.”

A pipe producer source told S&P Global on April 27 that he had heard a Russian producer had recently sold some HRC tonnage to Turkey at $1,000/mt CFR.

“Chinese suppliers have been offering HRC as low as $970/mt CFR Turkey, while Indian mills’ offers have been in a range of $990-$1,000/mt CFR in recent days,” the manager also said.

Confirming an HRC offer by a Turkish producer at $1,050/mt EXW on April 29, a manager of a Turkish steel producer said prices for hot-dip galvanized coil also fell significantly in a bearish market.

“Because of the Ramadan holiday starting next week, there are next to no transactions in the market,” one coated coil producer said, adding that scrap prices were also weak, with the market expecting scrap prices to soften further.

Turkish deepsea import ferrous scrap prices have declined gradually in recent weeks due to a sluggish finished product market. S&P Global assessed Turkish imports of premium heavy melting scrap 1/2 (80:20) at $560/mt CFR April 28, down a further $5/mt on the day.

A trading source said cold-rolled coil prices in Turkey are currently above those of hot-dipped galvanized steel, noting that high demand and less availability of CRC in the domestic market, along with low demand and more capacity for galvanized products, continued to put pressure on HDG prices. The source put mill offers for HDG 0.50 mm thickness at $1,160/mt EXW.

A coated coil producer said its offer price for 0.50mm thick HDG was at $1,150-1,200/mt EXW on April 29.

Another producer source, however, said some producers have already begun to offer HDG below $1,100/mt EXW amid sluggish market sentiment.

— Cenk Can