After a short-lived rebound seen in Asia’s import slab market in early June, the bearish mood has returned to the market and it is widespread now after the drop in the HRC segment, SteelOrbis has learned from the market.
China, which was the main buyer in the Asian slab market over the past months, has not purchased since the deal for ex-Russia slabs at $605/mt CFR in early June. And though suppliers have been trying to push up prices even higher - targeting $630/mt CFR - these aims have failed with futures and spot HRC prices in China tumbling. At the moment, the tradable level for imported slabs in China is hardly above $590-600/mt CFR, sources believe. “HRC is dropping, and so there are no bids for slabs,” a source in China said. Local HRC prices in China have fallen by RMB 190/mt ($28/mt) over the past week, coming to RMB 4,740/mt ex-warehouse on average, according to SteelOrbis.
In Taiwan, a deal for 50,000 mt of ex-Russia slabs was done at $630/mt CFR in early June. But most sources said that this deal is old and does not represent the market nowadays as HRC prices have decreased visibly since then and the new tradable level in Taiwan should be at around $600-610/mt CFR.
Apart from Russia, Indian suppliers have been offering slabs at $700-710/mt CFR Southeast Asia, down from $740/mt CFR early in June. There has been a lack of offers from other Asian suppliers, like Indonesia or China, in the region.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported slabs in the Asian region (excluding China) has settled at $630-710/mt CFR, with the midpoint at $670/mt CFR, down by $30/mt over the week.
