Chinese mills have maintained their focus on slab exports to the EU, taking into account persisted demand amid critical shortage of the material because of the war in Ukraine. Despite very high freight costs, ex-China slab prices have been competitive in Europe, while negotiations for ex-Russia slabs have been not heard even despite the absence of an official ban on semis imports to Europe from the country.
The large private Chinese mills have managed to trade 100,000 mt of slabs to the EU at $1,030/mt CFR. As it was reported earlier by SteelObris, China has been active in slab export sales to Europe since last week with FOB deal prices ranging mainly at $840-860/mt FOB. Though the freight from China to Europe is above $150/mt, prices have been competitive and in total Chinese mills have managed to sell at least 300,000 mt of slabs to Europe since late last week.
Ex-China slab prices have been more competitive even in comparison to ex-Indonesia tags. Last week ex-Indonesia slabs were traded at $1,040/mt CFR Europe and then offers have increased to $1,100/mt CFR. In general offers for ex-ASEAN slabs have been heard at $1,030-1,200/mt CFR Europe this week depending on the seller and grade.
Moreover, some market sources are not excluding ex-China HRC sales to Europe in the future even despite the existing duties. “Even if we take 20 percent duty [on HRC imports from some Chinese mills in Europe], prices are not as high in comparison to others like India or other Asia,” a source said.
In the case of the Asian import slab market, the trading has been fully halted and higher voiced offers have not been considered as even close to the workable price level by buyers. In contrast, they switched to purchases of HRC and CRC full hard from China, as prices for these products were not much higher than slabs tags. There have been reports about ex-China HRC sold at $885/mt CFR Taiwan and CRC full hard at $940/mt CFR. “There are offers [for Chinese HRC] at $850/mt FOB, so why to buy slabs? We better cut usage of slabs,” a source from East Asia said. According to sources, local HRC prices in Taiwan are at $940/mt ex-works, so the tradable level for slabs to the country has been assessed at $880/mt CFR. Offers for ex-China slabs were heard to Taiwan at thıs level last week, but by the end of this week some indications from China to Asia have increased to $1,000/mt CFR. “This price is just impossible here,” an Asian trader said. He also added that taking into account the latest FOB prices from China, the most competitive offer to Asia could be at $930-950/mt CFR.
As a result, SteelOrbis has increased its imported slabs reference price in Asia to $880-930/mt CFR, up by $20-30/mt over the week.
Ex-Russia slab offers have been absent this week in both Black Sea and Far East regions.
