Given persistently low end-user demand, Emirati purchasers, who have been less active in business activities for a few months now, have continued to refrain from purchasing or have been buying minimal volumes. Meanwhile, according to sources, even if current ex-China HRC prices are the lowest in the market, certain UAE re-rollers are not particularly interested since the material presents some obstacles in terms of selling to other countries.
“The domestic market in the UAE is not so great and surrounding markets are having their own issues. China is available at lower numbers, but we are not booking from China as we have to supply to the EU, the US, Canada and Australia, etc., who do not accept Chinese feedstock,” a representative of a major re-roller told SteelOrbis.
As a result, ex-China offers for SS400 HRC have remained stable week on week at around $570-600/mt CFR for October shipments, with no purchases or sales reported.
On the other hand, while the majority of the main Indian suppliers have maintained their silence and refrained from entering the UAE market because their domestic markets are stronger, there have been rumors that one Indian supplier has sold some small tonnage of 5,000 mt for delivery to the UAE at a price of $585/mt FOB, which is equivalent to $610-620/mt CFR. However, this information has not been confirmed by the time of publication.
In a similar vein, South Korea has continued to refrain from giving offers to the UAE due to the lack of interest from Emirati customers in South Korean material.
