During the seventh week of 2007, the
CIS export market continued to experience an upward trend as regards all products and target destinations. As for the domestic markets, some signs of stabilization were observed in
Russia, although some positive corrections were seen in respect to
flats and long products. Meanwhile, in
Ukraine the tensions between
scrap processors and consumers led to a sharp
scrap price increase during the week ended February 18.
Scrap: Ukrainian domestic market experiences sharp price rise
The Black Sea region
scrap market continued its strong upward trend during the seventh week of the year. Although at the beginning of the week, Turkish
scrap consumers in general refused to accept the price increase introduced at the time by both exporters of A3 grade and deep sea
scrap, towards the end of the week the consumers seemed to accept
scrap proposals at the renewed prices. Compared to the sixth week,
CIS-origin A3 grade
scrap was offered to the market at $5/mt higher during the week ended February 18.
The Russian domestic
scrap market saw some signs of stabilization during the seventh week. Although some competition for
scrap between exporters and domestic consumers of this raw material appeared to be present in the market, it has not as yet sparked off any price race.
The tensions between the domestic
scrap consumers and exporters were very apparent in the Ukrainian domestic market during the week ended February 18. The worsening of the weather conditions as well as the unwillingness of the domestic
scrap suppliers to sell this raw material at a low price (due to the very good international market conditions), contributed to pushing the Ukrainian domestic
scrap prices up by about UAH 80-90/mt ($16-18/mt) during last week.
Long Products: CIS exporters continue to beat their records
CIS-origin
billet continued to beat its own records in the
Middle East and Gulf regional markets during the week ended February 18. Very strong demand for this semi-finished product in the regions in question made it possible for
CIS exporters to increase their prices up to $500/mt FOB Black Sea and even higher.
Not only
CIS-origin
semis saw an increase last week. Together with
CIS-origin
billet,
wire rod and
rebar of the same origin showed a positive correction during the week ended February 18. Thus, the still high demand for
longs in the
Middle East and the beginning of the
construction season in
Europe made it possible for
CIS rebar and
wire rod exporters to increase their prices by $15-20/mt during the course of the week ended February 18.
The Russian domestic
longs market, after confusion during the sixth week, started to return to a somewhat stable trend during the week ended February 18. Although some
longs saw a positive correction during the week in question, this price rise had a more systematic character than was observed a week earlier. Thus, in the course of the week,
rebar increased by $5-10/mt in the Russian domestic market.
The Ukrainian
longs market continued to experience an upward trend during the seventh week. Thus, the
rebar price increased by UAH20/mt ($4), the beam price rose by UAH 90/mt ($18/mt), angle prices were up by UAH 40/mt ($8), while channel bar rose by UAH 15/mt ($3).
Flat rolled: Export quotations show rise
The
CIS export
flats market was governed by a rising trend during the seventh week. Following the announcements made by
CIS producers during the sixth week regarding the export price increase of $40-70/mt for March, the export spot market observed positive corrections during the seventh week. Thus, both
CIS-origin HR and CR increased by $10/mt.
Just like during the sixth week, the Russian domestic
flats market followed the trend established by
longs during the seventh week. As for the price, a very small positive correction to the amount of $3-5/mt was seen for both HR and CR.
During the seventh week of the year, the Ukrainian domestic
flats market was governed by a stable trend with HR being the only exception. Thus, during the course of the week, a price rise of UAH 20/mt ($4) was observed for HR, while CR and
galvanized steel prices did not show much fluctuation.