During the 33rd week of 2008 (August 11-17), the CIS export markets continued to trend downward in all product groups except for scrap. As for the domestic markets, the Russian and Ukraine scrap markets went in different directions last week. Whereas the scrap price went slightly down in Russia, it went up in Ukraine. As for the CIS domestic markets for finished steel, the market saw a downward trend for both flats and longs in Russia and an upward trend for longs in Ukraine.
Scrap: Regardless of renewal of activities, offers for A3 grade scrap are still few
During the 33rd week, the Black Sea region scrap market saw some activity in the market. However, although Turkish steelmakers returned to the market, the quantity of their purchases of A3 grade scrap is still rather low. On the price side, offers of A3 grade scrap saw a stable week.
The Russian domestic scrap market saw a slight downward correction during the week in question. However, regardless of this correction, the price level for A3 grade scrap in the Russian domestic market is still at the level of export prices.
On the other hand, the Ukrainian domestic scrap market saw an upward correction during the week ended August 17. The average price of A3 grade scrap in the Ukrainian domestic market stands at the level of UAH 2,200/mt ($453/mt) CPT mill, excluding railway tariffs. There are the rumors circulating in the market that the price for A3 grade scrap may rise further by about UAH 100-200/mt ($21-41/mt).
Longs: CIS-origin billet continues to move down
Ex-CIS billet price offers continued to fall during the 33rd week, decreasing by about $40-50/mt. On the other hand, many CIS exporters decided to refrain from offering their products at the moment, waiting for better market conditions.
In the longs segment, CIS exporters are trying to keep their prices at the present levels so as not to incur losses. However, this policy gives little results as buyers are staying away from active purchases.
A downward trend was also observed in the Russian domestic market during the week in question. Due to a slowdown in the construction sector, many consumers of longs in the market are currently reducing their consumption, pushing the prices in the market down. Thus, during the week in question, rebar in the Russian domestic market decreased by Ruble 200/mt ($8.2/mt).
Meanwhile, rebar prices in Ukraine continued to see a small upward movement. During the week in question, the retail price for rebar in Ukraine went up by UAH 20/mt ($4.4/mt).
Flats: CIS flats exporters forced to reduce offers
The holiday period in Europe, the overstocked Middle East and the low activity in Iran, all these factors are forcing the CIS flats exporters to lower their price offers further. Compared to the announcement at the beginning of August, the offers of CIS producers saw a reduction of about $100/mt, and even more for some producers.
Meanwhile, the Russian domestic flats market showed some negative trends during the week in question, with HR decreasing Ruble 200/mt ($8/mt) and CR decreasing by Ruble 100/mt ($4/mt).
On the other hand, the Ukrainian flats market saw no changes in domestic quotations during the given period.