After seeing that import offers, particularly from China, have continued to follow a rising trend, Emirati customers have begun to restock in line with their needs. This has led to some decent volumes of ex-China HRC being booked to the GCC region this week. Nevertheless, aside from the unimpressive local demand, several Emirati customers have postponed their purchases in the hope of reduced HRC import offers. The main reason for this hope is the decline in ex-China futures prices this week, which has led some Chinese traders to soften their offers.
According to reports, China has sold 10,000–15,000 mt of SS400 grade HRC to the UAE for shipping in January at $590–595/mt CFR, while the general offers, which were formerly at $595/mt CFR, have stabilized at around $590-600/mt CFR.
Furthermore, Chinese suppliers have sold SAE1006 grade HRC to the UAE and Saudi Arabia this week, both at $610/mt CFR, confirming last week's market rumors that offers from China to the UAE for SAE1006 were at around $600-620/mt CFR.
Meanwhile, with UAE buyers’ acceptance of $600/mt CFR pricing, Japan and South Korea have decided to hike their offer prices to the UAE. In light of this, South Korea's current offers have gone up to $655/mt CFR, compared to $585-595/mt CFR in previous weeks, while Japanese suppliers have offered at $620-630/mt CFR, up from $610/mt CFR before.
