Having faced insufficient demand and lower bids in their traditional sales destinations such as Turkey, CIS-based hot-rolled coil (HRC) exporters have set their eyes on certain alternative markets where prices have been high enough and there has been an opportunity to sell large volumes.
Russia’s Severstal, experiencing lower-than-expected demand for HRC in Europe, has chosen to expand the geographical range of its sales and to decrease its prices for coils depending on the destination. Offers for the northern part of the EU have dropped by $20-30/mt over the past two weeks to $1,040-1,080/mt FOB. The lower end of the ranges refers to the price for small coils, while the higher end is for big coils. Small coil prices for southern Europe have decreased by $10/mt to $910/mt FOB. In the meantime, Severstal’s small coil offers for the MENA region have dropped to $795-820/mt FOB. SteelOrbis has learned that Severstal has sold around 80,000 mt of HRC at the mentioned prices, with the larger part sold to Europe and some deals closed to North Africa.
Other CIS-based HRC exporters have also been seeking to sell to alternative destinations. One of them has traded 70,000 mt of HRC to Bangladesh at $930/mt CFR from Russia’s Far Eastern ports, SteelOrbis has learned. In addition, the company has sold around 20,000 mt of HRC to Pakistan at $920/mt CFR. In Turkey, the same mill’s price is standing at $890-900/mt CFR, $10/mt below the levels last week, with no fresh deals heard.
Another HRC exporter from the CIS has recently sold 10,000 mt of HRC to Turkey at $870/mt CFR for small coils, down $20/mt in two separate steps since last week. The same producer has reportedly been selling at $890/mt CFR to North Africa, but this information has not been confirmed by the time of publication.
It is worth mentioning that the situation in the Turkish market is complicated for suppliers as there is not much demand and bids are becoming lower. The information about 23,000 mt HRC sold by India at $880/mt CFR has not been confirmed by the time of publication, but the flat steel community has been disturbed by such rumors, believing that Indian mills may become more aggressive in the coming days. In addition, there are talks about import offers from the EU, specifically already set by ThyssenKrupp and expected from Serbia’s HBIS. However, no firm levels have been reported by the time of publication.
