With lack of demand from the US finished products market, US slab demand is decreasing as well.
As the year end approaches, re-rollers do not have any incentive to buy large quantities of slab at the moment. They are trying to manage their inventory at low levels and buy only to meet current needs. In addition to closing the fiscal year, the other main reason that re-rollers are not interested in buying slab is due to the sluggish US finished products market. With lack of order books from the domestic finished products market and the decreasing finished products prices, re-rollers have lost confidence and are not purchasing slab in regular tonnages. It is a tough position for re-rollers to make profit on the narrow margin. On the other hand, there is sufficient slab availability in the market.
Therefore, the US slab market remains dull with low domestic slab demand and plentiful slab supply. Currently, slab prices in the US can be found in the level of $510 to $530/mt FOB loading ports. It is expected that the domestic slab market will continue to be soft next month.
The latest data from the US Department of Commerce's Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) system show that the total amount of slab imports into the US in the month of September was 384,726 mt, reflecting an increase of 36,802 mt when compared to the figure in August 2010. The main countries that exported slab to the US in September include: Canada, at 120,434 mt; Russia, at 93,421 mt; Germany, at 91,075 mt; Brazil, at 55,305 mt; and Ukraine, at 24,491 mt. Japan also exported a smaller amount of slab to the US during the period.