Slab in the basic commercial grades is now being traded at $330/mt, FOB conditions, against $320/mt over the last three weeks, said a major exporter close to SteelOrbis.
In his view, is not possible to identify the possibility of an upward trend, as there are mixed signals in the market. “The current price is not far from production costs, so the exporters are not willing to accept lower prices,” he said.
But he warned that the first export sale of slab by Companhia Siderurgica do Pecem (CSP), an integrated slab producer located in the Brazilian northern state of Ceara, will put downward pressure on prices: “With more offers, the price has a tendency to decline,” he said, adding that the volume traded in the world merchant slab market, currently estimated at 20 million mt per year, will suffer a strong impact from the additional production of CSP.
CSP, a joint venture among Vale, Dongkuk and Posco, has just exported 20,000 mt of slabs to Italy and Turkey. The plant is currently in the ramp-up process to achieve its slab production capacity of 3 million mt per year.