Buying activity has been weak in the Asian slab market over the past week as Chinese customers have stayed away from purchases, while sentiment in the HRC segment in the region has somewhat weakened.
Offers for slabs from Russia, Brazil and Southeast Asia have been at $470-485/mt CFR Asia over the past week. Even higher numbers up to $490/mt CFR have been heard from some suppliers, but most sources have said it has not been reflecting the current market conditions. In contrast, bids from Southeast Asia and East Asia have been at the lower levels – at $460/mt CFR, according to some sources. As SteelOrbis reported earlier, ex-CIS slabs have been traded at $470-475/mt CFR Southeast Asia and no new deals have been reported after that.
Some weakening of HRC prices in Asia, driven by lower export prices from China, have hurt sentiment in the slabs segment. In Vietnam, the tradable value for imported SAE1006 HRC has been at $530-535/mt CFR versus $535-545/mt CFR early last week, while for SS400 – at $520/mt CFR.
Chinese traders have not been ready to resume negotiations to buy slabs, seeing decline in the local HRC prices. As a result, the SteelOrbis reference price for slabs in Asia has been lowered by $5/mt from last week to $465-470/mt CFR, taking into account slack demand and lower bids.