Ex-China CRC prices have edged down in the past week mainly due to the decreasing trend of domestic CRC offers and declining HRC futures prices.
At present, export offers for CRC given by major Chinese mills are at $630-640/mt FOB for November shipment, moving down by $5/mt compared to September 20. Meanwhile, the tradable level of ex-China CRC offer prices has declined to $630/mt FOB, versus $635/mt FOB last week. “The downward trend in HRC futures prices and downstream users’ unwillingness to build up stocks ahead of the long holiday have negatively affected CRC prices,” an international trader told SteelOrbis.
During the given week, though the long National Day holiday (September 29-October 6) has been drawing closer, downstream users did not build up stocks as much as market players had expected, which exerted a negative impact on CRC prices. At the same time, iron ore prices have moved on a downtrend, weakening the support for CRC prices from the cost side. The supply of CRC has been tight, bolstering prices to a certain degree. Demand may not see significant improvements in the near future.
Average domestic 1.0 mm cold rolled coil spot prices in China are at RMB 4,317/mt ($602/mt) ex-warehouse, decreasing by RMB 63/mt ($8.8/mt) compared to September 20, according to SteelOrbis’ information.
As of September 27, HRC futures at the Shanghai Futures Exchange are standing at RMB 3,767/mt ($525/mt), decreasing by RMB 165/mt ($23/mt) or down by 4.2 percent since September 20.
$1 = RMB 7.1717