The reference price for Brazilian slab exports is now $580/mt, FOB conditions for the basic commercial grades, compared with $585/mt this past week, remaining among the highest reference prices in almost two years, although declining for the fourth straight week, following a May peak at $605/mt.
Sources say conditions in Brazil’s slab export market remain largely unchanged, with prices stable or slightly lower.
Insiders tell SteelOrbis that domestic slabs are now particularly needed as replacement feedstock for rolling into cold-rolled coils and other coated flat products, whose imports from China have been slashed as a result of heavy antidumping duties levied by Brazilian authorities.
Domestic slabs demand is expected to increase further, leaving less material available for exports, if hot-rolled coils (HRC) are included among the products subject to antidumping duties on Brazilian imports from China. Sources said authorities are close to deciding whether to include HRC on that list.
Preliminary data from Secex, the foreign trade secretariat of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, shows Brazil’s slab exports in June matching or slightly exceeding those for the month of May at 390,500 mt.
