During the 17th week of 2007, the CIS export markets for all product groups experienced a continuation of their price decreasing trends. Even the longs markets, where exporters were able to sustain high prices because of the strength of the domestic markets, have finally started to surrender their positions. The Russian and Ukrainian domestic markets for scrap continued to be governed by decreasing trends, while these countries' longs markets were still climbing higher in both demand and prices. On the other hand, the domestic flats markets showed split trends during the week ended April 29. Whereas the Russian domestic market saw a decrease in HR and increase in CR quotations, Ukrainian domestic flat makers experienced a drop in CR prices and rise in HR prices during the 17th week.
Scrap: consumers still pushing prices down
During the 17th week of the year, the Black Sea scrap market continued to follow a downward trend regarding A3 grade scrap prices. Supported by the relatively high levels of scrap stocks, consumers of Russian and Ukrainian scrap were able to push export prices for this scrap material down by $20/mt during the past week. However, the reluctance to cut prices on the part of the deep-sea scrap exporters in the region in question might provide a good stimulus for a recovery in ex-CIS scrap prices in the upcoming weeks.
The Russian domestic scrap market was relatively calm during the last week of April. It seemed as though the Russian domestic steelmakers had made up their minds not to make any moves until after the May holidays.
The Ukrainian domestic scrap market was once again governed by a price decreasing trend during the week ended April 29. Even the approach of the holidays failed to exert a calming influence on the market, where the price for A3 grade scrap decreased by UAH 5/mt ($1/mt).
Long products: export prices fall regardless of strong domestic markets
During the last week of April, the CIS semis export market experienced a sharp decrease in billets quotations. The main consumers of Russian and Ukrainian billets have built up enough stocks and are now able to put pressure on producers to lower their prices. The price of ex-CIS billets in the course of the week decreased by $20-25/mt. In addition, market players reported that the volumes of bookings for ex-CIS billets also fell considerably.
Spurred by the decreasing billet export prices, the CIS longs exporters started to decrease their export quotations as well. During the week ended April 29, CIS-origin rebar and wire rod were lowered in price by $10/mt each.
The Russian domestic market continued to follow the previous week's upward trends in demand and quotations, regardless of the decreases in export prices. Thus, in the course of the week, in the Russian retail market rebar increased by $15/mt, angle went up by $12/mt, while channel bar rose by $37/mt.
The Ukrainian domestic longs market continued to be governed by an upward trend during the 17th week. Thus, rebar increased by UAH 35/mt ($7/mt), beam and angle rose by UAH 30/mt ($6/mt) each, while channel bar increased by UAH 40/mt ($8/mt). However, whereas in the Russian domestic market the continuous price rise is supported by domestic demand, the price rise in the Ukrainian domestic market has been mainly provoked by the longs producers' price hike.
Flats: domestic markets slow down a bit
During the 17th week of the year, the CIS export market for flats was governed by a slight decreasing trend. Due to the high stocks of flats in many global markets, the demand for CIS-origin flats is moving downward, followed by a decline in prices. The Russian and Ukrainian producers had already announced a $10-20/mt decrease last week for their products for June shipment.
During the week ended April 29, the Russian domestic flats market saw both positive and negative corrections. Thus, HR decreased by Ruble 30/mt ($1/mt), while CR went up by Ruble 170/mt ($7/mt). On the other hand, galvanized steel continued to preserve its stability.
The Ukrainian domestic flats market continued to follow a mixed trend in the 17th week. As during the previous week, CR decreased in the Ukrainian domestic market, by UAH 6/mt ($1/mt), while HR went up by UAH 47/mt ($15/mt).