After a majority sell-out of domestic December allocations by Turkish hot rolled coil producers, export sales have also picked up despite mills increasing offers.

The fact the US will no longer double the Section 232 duty on Turkish steel to 50% and the ongoing strength of scrap prices in Turkey are two major drivers of the increase. Turkish mills' ability to supply material with the shortest lead times available in the market also helped, sources tell Kallanish.

As domestic market pressure lifted, with several sell-side sources claiming regular domestic contract volumes increased for this round of sales, mills tabled export offers at $390-415/tonne fob. This resulted in fresh bookings. One mill sold a large lot to southern Europe and a smaller but still large lot to Central Europe at net back price of around $410/t fob for January loading late last week.

Another mill closed a now regular southern European bulk sale at around $390/t fob (€375/t cfr), sources say, claiming this to be a "…very good price considering competition and tonnage involved." Forthcoming production cuts announced in Italy and extended maintenances in Turkey have boosted sentiment, with relatively small availability left to sell this year, Turkish sources say. North Africa is bidding at $415/t cfr now that prices are slowly increasing and availability wanes, but no sales have been heard thus far.

Demand in the EU may strengthen further as more production cuts are announced in Europe, while inventories in the EU are at the lowest level in a long time, according to European sources. In what traders describe as a "…crisis of confidence," tangible measures such as output cuts may instil enough trust to increase restocking tempo, they claim, The year-end restocking pattern has nevertheless always veered to the side of caution, thus perhaps prolonging the delayed demand materialisation by another month, sources conclude.