SteelOrbis has been informed that demand for HRC imports in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has failed to revive as buyers are maintaining their cautious stance. Still refraining from accelerating purchases in order to replenish their stocks, UAE-based HRC buyers are expected to maintain a cautious approach to import purchases for some time due to apprehensions in the global markets and the ongoing international trade tensions.
During the past week, Chinese HRC offers to the UAE have softened slightly to $605/mt CFR. On the other hand, Indian producers’ HRC offers to the UAE are observed to have consolidated at $600/mt CFR from the range of $600-605/mt CFR as no higher offer has been heard in the UAE. Having reduced their HRC export offers in the current week, CIS-based suppliers' HRC offers to the UAE have declined by an average of $20/mt week on week to $570/mt CFR. As a result, import HRC offers in the UAE market are observed to be in an overall range of $570-605/mt CFR, indicating a $7.5/mt fall on average. The most recent HRC offers from Iran to the UAE were at $580/mt CFR Dubai. It is observed that the Iranian currency has lost significant strength against the US dollar due to US economic sanctions, and so Iranian buyers are not very active in the UAE import HRC market.