The situation in Pakistan’s import hot rolled coil (HRC) market has not improved much over the past week with the focus being mainly on negotiations with some Chinese traders who have kept offering position cargoes at the lowest level among all foreign suppliers and have even decreased their prices this week due to the decreasing trend in local HRC spot prices and HRC futures prices in China caused by the sharp rise in new Covid-19 cases in China. Meanwhile, other foreign suppliers have resisted any cuts in prices so far.
Accordingly, a position cargo for ex-China SS400 HRC was sold at the beginning of this week by a trader at $885-890/mt CFR Pakistan for May shipment. Besides, some ex-China offers have already been voiced at $870-880/mt CFR Pakistan. Meanwhile, offers for ex-China SAE1006 HRC have been heard at around $910/mt CFR Pakistan this week, down by $20/mt compared to the last deals signed last week. “The situation in China is unclear. China's government has imposed a lockdown to contain a Covid-19 outbreak that has spread to multiple locations, and so prices dropped a lot yesterday. But today futures prices have rebounded again by RMB 148/mt ($23/mt) from yesterday, preventing traders from further cutting prices,” a market insider told SteelOrbis.
Meanwhile, the latest offers from Taiwan for SAE1006 HRC have been voiced at $1,030/mt CFR. Besides, market insiders said there was a deal for 25,000 mt of ex-Japan SAE1006 HRC at $980/mt CFR at the beginning of the week, though this was not confirmed by the time of publication because most Pakistani buyers consider this deal to be “overpriced”. No new offers from Indonesia have been reported this week, after a deal for ex-Indonesia SAE1006 HRC was signed at $925/mt CFR Pakistan last week.
