44th week CIS market review: flat and long products markets are in recession

During the 44th week the CIS markets were governed by recession trends. In the export markets, the prices for CIS-origin long and flat rolled products underwent some reductions against a background of stable and, even in some cases, rising demand. As for the domestic markets, both Ukrainian and Russian domestic markets saw a decrease in prices and demand for long products during the week ended October 30, while domestic flat rolled markets, on the other hand, showed different tendencies. Last week, stability was the main characteristic of both the CIS export and Russian domestic scrap markets, whereas the Ukrainian domestic scrap market resumed its trend of price increase. Scrap: no developments in exports, Russian market is stable, Ukraine - on the rise During the 44th week the Black Sea region scrap market was governed by a stable trend with no visible changes observed regarding CIS-origin scrap. Although Turkish consumers resumed their scrap purchases in large volumes, to build winter reserves, during the first week of November, they seemed to neglect CIS-origin scrap due to its price. On the other hand, Russian and Ukrainian scrap exporters were not in hurry to reduce their prices to attract consumers due to the still strong domestic markets. The Russian domestic scrap market continued its stable trend during the week ended November 6. Although domestic scrap demand was still very high in Russia due to the continued build-up of scrap inventories, the scrap prices saw no fluctuations during the period in question. The Ukrainian domestic scrap market renewed its price rise trend during the first week of November. The market stability, which was established during the 42nd and 43rd weeks in the Ukrainian domestic scrap market, was broken last week, when the prices resumed their increase, adding about UAH 20-30 per metric ton. Long Products: Chinese export tariffs on semi-finished did not affect CIS products as expected During the 44th week, contrary to the expected positive billet market price corrections due to imposition of the export tariffs on semi-finished products by the Chinese authorities, CIS-origin billets slightly decreased in price by about $5 per metric ton. As regards demand, the new Chinese export regulations positively affected Russian and Ukrainian-origin billet demand in the Middle East and Persian Gulf markets. Long products from the CIS maintained a stable trend during the 44th week in the export markets, with the only exception being wire rod. Thus, during the week ended November 6, Russian and Ukrainian export prices for wire rod decreased by $15 and $10 per metric ton respectively. Export prices of other CIS-origin long products are expected to decrease soon as well due to the weakening of domestic demand, which allowed Russian and Ukrainian exporters to hold their prices high for a long time. The Russian domestic long products market continued to show a recession in demand due to the end of the construction season. During the week ended November 6, rebar prices registered a 1.7 percent decrease, while angle and channel bar prices decreased by on average 0.6 percent each. Only beam prices showed a positive correction in the Russian domestic market during last week, rising by 1.4 percent. The end of the construction season began to be felt in the Ukrainian domestic market last week, with a fall in long product prices. However, the negative changes in price, experienced by the majority of long products, were insignificant during the week ended November 6. Flat rolled: export quotations continue to decrease During the first week of November, the global market for flat rolled was governed by a price decrease trend, which also negatively affected CIS-origin flat rolled products, in particular HR. While CIS-origin CR prices were able to preserve stability during the 44th week, prices for HR decreased slightly. In the Russian domestic market, the prices for HR became reanimated during the 44th week. Although the HR price had shown a 2.5 percent decrease during the 43rd week, it registered a 1.5 percent increase in the Russian domestic market last week. CR, on the other hand, showed a one percent decrease during the first week of November. The Ukrainian domestic flat rolled market was stable in terms of prices during last week, showing no price fluctuations for the majority of products. The only exception was galvanized steel, the price for which decreased by 0.8 percent during the week ended November 6.