Prices of Asian slab in the global market have posted a decrease in early June, signaling that the long-standing uptrend has come to an end due to the lack of decent support from the buyers’ side.
The Indonesian mill has been offering slabs for August shipment at $515/mt FOB this week, down by $5/mt from late last week, but up $15/mt month on month. One of the Vietnamese mills has been targeting $520/mt FOB for HRC grade slabs. There has been a lack of slab sales from ASEAN producers over the past month, while their main focus has been on HRC and other flat steel products. But since the sentiment in the HRC segment has also changed and become more negative, slab prices have naturally followed, according to market sources. As for plate grade slabs, ex-Asia prices are assessed at around $530/mt FOB.
European customers have been less eager to buy in late May-early June, as they finished their purchases earlier. The latest deals for plate grade slabs from China and Vietnam were signed at $595-600/mt CFR by mid-May. However, new offers from Chinese and other Asian slab suppliers have been reported at $580-595/mt CFR, but these levels are indicative so far, with no new negotiations heard. Most buyers have purchased slabs for July-August shipment, while it is still too early to buy material which will be delivered in late September-October.
Import slab market activity in Turkey has been somewhat slow lately since HRC market sentiment is rather negative even though mills are managing to keep offers stable. While Turkey is currently proceeding with August production HRC sales, the expectations are mainly downward and the mills will push for lower slab prices as well. The issue is that, specifically for Asian slab suppliers, the market in Europe does not offer great margins and so prices are unlikely to drop sharply. The latest ex-China slab offers to Turkey has this week stood at $575-580/mt CFR for August shipment. According to sources, a Malaysian mill has been targeting $590-595/mt CFR and most probably traded a large lot at $585/mt CFR. The non-sanctioned Russian slab supplier is currently offering at $555-560/mt CFR Turkey for August shipment. “Logically, the workable slab prices should be at $530-540/mt CFR since HRC is most probably heading down to $615/mt ex-works levels locally and to $600/mt FOB for export,” a source told SteelOrbis.
As for Southeast Asia’s import market, the mood is also negative and Chinese sellers see the tradable level for base HRC grade slabs in Thailand at not above $500/mt CFR and at $505-510/mt CFR in Indonesia. A month ago, the tradable levels and some deals were reported at $520-530/mt CFR in Southeast Asia.
