The slab market has been relatively quiet over the past two weeks as suppliers have mostly been reluctant to provide discounts, while buyers have been showing no interest in buying at the current levels, seeing the weak flat steel market conditions. Only some deals were signed at lower levels than those initially asked for, but trading is still very limited.
The tradable level for ex-ASEAN slabs has been at $510-520/mt FOB, down from offers reported by SteelOrbis at $515-535/mt FOB two weeks back. However, some mills have been refusing to confirm this level and have been focused on exports of other products as buyers’ bids have been even lower.
In Europe, ex-ASEAN slab offers (for HRC grade mainly) have been reported at $570-580/mt CFR, only slightly lower than $570-590/mt CFR heard two weeks back. But bids are already not above $560/mt CFR for this grade. Market sources said that, since the HRC and plate markets in Europe have not improved much over the given period, buyers have been insisting only on the previous levels paid for slabs. As for plate grade slabs, offers are still limited in Europe and at $590-615/mt CFR from China, softening from $595-625/mt CFR two weeks ago. Buyers are assessing the tradable level for plate grade as not being above $580/mt CFR now, given that some tonnages of ex-Turkey slabs were sold to Europe at lower levels than Chinese offers in the middle of May.
The latest deal for ex-Indonesia slabs was done a week ago at $510/mt FOB, but the final destination has not been confirmed so far. Some market sources believe that it could be for Latin America, signaling a drop of about $10/mt from the previous level.
As for Turkey, Asian slab offers have remained relatively stable over the past fortnight at $550-560/mt CFR, with the last deal confirmed for a sizable lot of Malaysian slabs (which are duty-free) at the higher end of the range. In total, Turkey purchased two or three big lots from Malaysia at $540-560/mt CFR over the past month, as Malaysia is still among the attractive sources of slabs for mills not working with Russian material. Nevertheless, the next negotiations for slabs which are not subject to import duty will be started by buyers again from $540/mt CFR. Sanctioned Russian slabs have been at $480-485/mt CFR in offers, but no new deal has been confirmed so far.
