36th week CIS export and domestic markets review

During the 36th week, both CIS export and domestic markets underwent some changes in terms of scrap and long products, while the downward trend in the world flat products market was not so strong as to affect the CIS domestic markets significantly. The most noteworthy trends of the week were the decrease in scrap procurement prices in the Russian domestic market and also the reanimation of the CIS long products export market. Scrap Activity in the Black Sea regional scrap market, though slow, is growing steadily and is affecting CIS-origin scrap prices positively. Thus, during the 36th week, Russian and Ukrainian scrap exporters offered A3 grade scrap to Turkey at prices which were $10/mt higher than a week ago, while Russian scrap from the Baltic Sea ports rose in price by $10-15/mt. In the Russian domestic market, the price decrease expected since mid-August finally occurred at the end of last week. In the course of the week ended September 11, Russian steelmakers jointly lowered the procurement price for A3 grade scrap by Ruble 200/mt. However, scrap demand is still very strong and, given the inevitable redirection of some amounts of scrap to export, prices are expected to pick up sometime soon again. For the moment, Russian domestic steelmakers have decided to pursue a wait-and-see policy, and are ready to raise the procurement prices for A3 grade scrap to previous levels as soon as exports threaten to leave them without the necessary stocks of scrap. The Ukrainian domestic scrap market, on the other hand, followed the opposite tendency. Ukrainian steelmakers decided to proceed with an assurance price policy in the face of growing activity in the exports market and hiked procurement prices for A3 grade scrap by an average of UAH 15/mt during last week. Long products During the first week of September, CIS exporters raised their export prices, thus staying inline with the price increase tendency in the majority of the world's markets. Among long products, price changes were seen especially in billet and wire rod, which gained in price by about $5-15/mt and $10-15/mt respectively for exports from the Black Sea ports. Yet, due to the strong domestic Russian demand for long products - which not only pulled Russian producers from export markets but also attracted foreign producers to the internal market - Russian long products were almost absent from export markets during last week, thus freeing the way for the Ukrainian and Moldavian exporters. In the Russian domestic market, tendencies both in terms of demand and price were varied during last week. Although in general the market for long products was still very strong, the central Russian regions showed a small decrease in demand due to the start of the seasonal slowdown in construction industry activity, and also due to reluctance on the part of consumers to pay the prices asked by suppliers. As far as the Ukrainian domestic market is concerned, long products were on the up last week. Thus, rebar rose in price by UAH13/mt, channel bar by UAH 40/mt and beam increased by UAH 35/mt in the course of last week. Flat Rolled CIS export markets during the 36th week were characterized by reductions in the quotation of both Russian and Ukrainian producers of flat products. Accordingly, during last week CIS-origin HRC decreased in average by $20-30/mt while CRC decreased in average by $10/mt depending on the targeted market. Low activity continued to be the main characteristic of the Russian domestic market for flat rolled last week, where both consumers and suppliers were awaiting price correction from producers or else were under the influence of the export markets. Therefore prices were stable, with just a minor fluctuation in CR, the price for which decreased 1-1.5 percent last week. In the Ukrainian domestic market, flat rolled products showed rising tendencies last week. In particular, CR increased by 0.15 percent, galvanized steel by about 1.2 percent while HR rose by about 2 percent.