ASEAN slab exporters have increased their offers significantly this week after succeeding in sales of sizable volumes, mainly to the European market.
According to market sources, new offers from one of the major Indonesian slab sellers are at $580/mt FOB. Since early last week, the mill has managed to sell around 80,000 mt of slabs at near $550-555/mt FOB (around $590-595/mt CFR), while the previous booking from the same producer was reported at $540/mt FOB. The final sale destination is said to be Europe.
Vietnam has officially offered at $590/mt FOB after more than one sale at around $550/mt FOB last week.
A Malaysian slab producer has also managed to trade one cargo at a higher level, at $575/mt FOB, with market sources saying that the material is for a European plate producer. The CFR price is estimated at $615/mt CFR t the lowest. This is the highest price in the market for now. European buyers have been accepting higher slab prices, seeing the uptrend in the flat steel market.
In Turkey’s import slab market, even though scrap has been rising rapidly and HRC prices have also been gaining momentum, the tradable level for Asian origin slabs has been lower, at $575-580/mt CFR, though it has added $15-20/mt from previous sales. After two deals for ex-Malaysia slabs and one Indian contract near $560/mt CFR last week, offers for Malaysian origin have not been below $590-600/mt CFR. The indications for non-sanctioned ex-Russia slab are evaluated at around $560/mt CFR, while the sanctioned material is expected to be priced at least $20/mt lower than that.
“Now Asian mills have sold out a big part of January shipment [allocation of slabs for exports], so they don’t want to sell the rest cheaply,” a trader said. At the moment, the gap between offers for billet and slabs from the ASEAN region has reached $55/mt.