Flat steel makers in Asia are fighting hard to retain a share of their region's market in the face of ample supplies of hot-rolled coil (HRC) coming in from international steelmakers, market sources have told Fastmarkets.
Offers and transaction prices for HRC from Turkey and Russia have been undercutting the higher offer prices for Asia-origin material.The lower offers from Turkey were a result of the weakness of that country's lira, whose exchange rate value fell to an intra-year low of TRY6.180 to $1 on May 9 this year. This was down from a high of TRY5.281 to $1 on January 31, and was the result of the political and economic tensions between the Middle Eastern nation and the United States.Turkish HRC has been offered at $500-505 per tonne cfr Vietnam for the past two weeks, with one transaction concluded at $503 per tonne cfr Vietnam for shipment in July or August. There were no offers heard in the week ended Friday June 14.Turkey exported 34,681 tonnes of HRC to Vietnam in January-April 2019, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK). There were no HRC shipments to...