In the week following the Feast of Sacrifice holiday, import hot rolled coil (HRC) purchases in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were expected to accelerate slightly, but no such improvement has yet been observed with market conditions remaining sluggish. On the other hand, having kept their HRC purchases at low levels during the summer, UAE-based buyers are predicted to start restocking activities as of September.
During the past two weeks, Chinese HRC offers to the UAE have remained stable at $610/mt CFR, representing one of the highest import HRC offers in the UAE. In parallel with the rises recorded in Chinese HRC futures contract prices, Chinese HRC export offers have remained at high levels, preventing the granting of significant discounts. On the other hand, due to the depreciation of the Indian rupee against the US dollar - which has been observed for some time now , Indian producers were forced to reduce their HRC offers to the UAE, and so their current offers are in the range of $600-605/mt CFR. SteelOrbis has also been informed that Turkish steel mills have offered HRC to the region in the current week at $580/mt FOB ($605-610/mt CFR UAE). While ex-CIS HRC offers to the UAE are at $590/mt CFR Jebel Ali, Iranian HRC offers to the same destination are at $580/mt CFR Dubai. As a result, import HRC offers in the UAE market are observed to be at $580-610/mt CFR.