In general, the Asian slab market has been range-bound since late November. Only certain mills in the region have agreed to provide some discounts, while most other sellers, especially those in China and those who can offer plate grade slabs, have been keeping their offers stable on the back of slightly better expectations.
Offers from ASEAN mills for slabs have been in a wide range of $450-480/mt FOB, versus $455-480/mt FOB reported on November 20. The main Indonesian mill has cut official offers to $450/mt FOB, down by $10/mt from last week. Also, the leading Vietnamese mill is still looking for $470-480/mt FOB as there has been a lack of plate grade slabs in the market. The only lower price from ASEAN exporters has been heard from another Vietnamese producer. There has been information that 5,000 mt of HRC grade slabs have been sold to Thailand as a trial lot, with the price assessed at around $450/mt CFR. “Thailand can easily buy from Rusia or Iran, so the tradable price in Southeast Asia is $450-460/mt CFR at the highest,” a source said.
A larger tonnage of 40,000 mt of Russian slabs from a sanctioned mill have been traded to Southeast Asia at $455/mt CFR. Some sales from Iran to the region are also rumored to have been sold at a similar price level.
In Europe, where demand for slabs has been limited for some time, some sporadic deals have been done for plate grade slabs at $530-540/mt CFR, almost similar to the offers two weeks ago. Buyers have been targeting $520/mt CFR, but they have failed to achieve this due to limited supply.
In Turkey, interest in import slabs has been among the lowest. “Market players think that the issue is the price level, but it is not. It may not be possible to sell now just by dropping the price level,” a source said, commenting on some Asian slab offers at below $500/mt CFR.