Ex-China HRC offer prices have moved sideways in the past week, remaining uncompetitive in most outlets, and the uncertainty over the possible export duty still exists even though the month has come to an end. The attention of Chinese sellers has remained on the local market, where, however, sentiment and the near-term outlook are not very bright either.
At present, export offers for boron-added SS400 HRC given by major Chinese mills are at $950-1,020/mt FOB for October shipment, with a midpoint at $985/mt FOB, moving sideways on average compared to last week. “Demand from overseas buyers has remained sluggish, while China has been unwilling to decrease its offer prices,” an international trader told SteelOrbis.
The tradable price level for SS400 coils has slipped slightly by $10/mt on average over the past week to $890-920/mt FOB, where the lower end corresponds to the level provided by some traders, while the higher end translates to the tradable level of coils to South America.
The workable price level for SAE1006 HRC from Chinese small mills and traders has been reported at $900-920/mt FOB, while the lowest offers has been reported to Vietnam from a trader at $910-915/mt CFR, again totally out of the range of interest of buyers, who are bidding at below $860/mt CFR.
During the given week, domestic HRC prices in China have declined slightly amid the fluctuations seen in HRC futures prices. At the same time, demand for HRC has not seen significant improvement, and so downstream users have mostly been purchasing in line with their needs. Traders have had to cut their prices to bring in funds.
Domestic HRC prices in China are at RMB 5,580-5,710/mt ($861-883/mt) ex-warehouse on August 31, with the average price level RMB 5/mt ($0.8/mt) lower as compared to August 24, according to SteelOrbis’ data. Compared with the price level on Monday, August 30, average local quotations are RMB 30/mt ($4.6/mt) lower.
As of August 31, HRC futures at the Shanghai Futures Exchange are standing at RMB 5,564/mt ($860/mt), decreasing by RMB 40/mt ($18.8/mt) or 0.7 percent since August 24.
$1 = RMB 6.4679
