Asian slab offers have increased significantly in the middle of March, based on some improvement in China and tighter restrictions for HRC imports in Europe.
The leading Indonesian mill has announced slab offers at $465/mt FOB, up by $30/mt over the past month and up $20-25/mt from the level seen in offers early this week. Some sources said that the price is higher after a sizable sale of 50,000 mt of Indonesian slabs to Turkey for April shipment. However, this information has not been confirmed by the time of publication.
But the hike in slab offers has been much bigger than that that in billet offers, which have added $5-10/mt since last week. “I think they raise the price because after the EU document came out many people rushed to them to buy HRC, so they raised that price and slabs followed,” a trader commented.
The latest offers for Indonesian and Vietnamese slabs have been reported to Europe at $500/mt CFR, up from $480-485/mt CFR in mid-February. Chinese slab offers are also higher, at $520/mt CFR and above.
In Turkey, the latest workable level for ex-Asia slabs, excluding Malaysian slabs, which are duty-free, has been heard at $475-478/mt CFR. This is up from $465-470/mt CFR a month ago. At least two weeks back, a few deals for ex-Asia slabs were rumored at around $470/mt CFR.
