Ex-China CRC prices have edged up compared to the previous week mainly due to a slight recovery in futures HRC prices. However, most market insiders are rather sceptical about higher prices given the continuous decline in domestic CRC quotes in China.
At present, export offers for CRC given by major Chinese mills are at $650-670/mt FOB for July shipment, versus $650/mt FOB last week.
The tradable level of ex-China CRC offer prices has been heard at $640-650/mt FOB, increasing by $5/mt compared to May 10.
“Though HRC futures prices moved up, the demand from downstream users has not been good enough to continuously bolster CRC prices, Chinese have sellers raised their export offer prices for CRC, while deal prices have not indicated similar growth,” an international trader told SteelOrbis.
During the given week, CRC prices in the Chinese domestic market have moved down amid the prevailing cautious sentiments among market players. Inventory of CRC has decreased, while the market performance has not been as good as market participants had expected, negatively affecting prices. Oversupply has continued, which will exert a negative impact on the CRC market in the coming week. Lately, iron ore futures and HRC futures prices have indicated big rises, which will likely bolster market sentiment in the near future.
Average domestic 1.0 mm cold rolled coil spot prices in China are at RMB 4,233/mt ($607/mt) ex-warehouse, edging down by RMB 67/mt ($9.6/mt) compared to May 10, according to SteelOrbis’ information.
As of May 17, HRC futures at the Shanghai Futures Exchange are standing at RMB 3,775/mt ($541/mt), rising by RMB 15/mt ($2.2/mt) or up by 0.4 percent since May 10.
$1 = RMB 6.9748