Asian customers have been waiting for a further decline in import slab prices as the situation in the HRC segment has worsened again. Some Southeast Asian suppliers have started to offer slabs at lower levels, though the number of attractive prices for buyers has been limited so far.
Offers from suppliers have been at $650-680/mt CFR Southeast Asia, but trading has been muted. The lower end of the range corresponds to prices possible to get for ex-Indonesia and ex-Iran slabs. Bids have been heard at $650-660/mt CFR for now, down from the previous ex-CIS slabs deals in the range of $670-685/mt CFR to Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
“Now the market is very quiet. Buyers tend to wait and see only,” a Southeast Asian importer said, adding that the market should touch $650/mt CFR in new deals and then stabilize.
One of the major Iranian mills has sold a slab cargo at $585/mt FOB for February shipment, stable compared to the previous deal reported by another mill for January shipment last week.
In the HRC segment, the tradable level for imported HRC in Vietnam has slipped to $810/mt CFR from $815-835/mt CFR a week before.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported slabs in Southeast Asia has been lowered to $650-670/mt CFR, down by $15/mt on average from last week.