Ex-China offer prices of cold rolled coil (CRC) have moved down in the past week following a stable trend in the previous week due to the worsening coronavirus pandemic worldwide, which has led to low demand in major sales destinations in Asia and South America.
At present, export offers for CRC given by major Chinese mills are at $455-460/mt FOB for late June delivery, down $10/mt from April 1. There were very rare deals heard in the market, with the reference deal price at $450/mt FOB to Southeast Asia and South America.
During the given week, downstream buyers in China have been inactive in purchases of CRC. A sentiment of panic prevails among players in the CRC market due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic negatively affecting the global real economy.
Average domestic 1.0 mm cold rolled coil spot prices in China are at RMB 3,633/mt ($515.4/mt) ex-warehouse, which is RMB 117/mt ($16.6/mt) lower as compared to April 1, according to SteelOrbis’ information.
As of April 8, HRC futures at the Shanghai Future Exchange are standing at RMB 3,103/mt ($440.3/mt), increasing by RMB 104/mt ($14.8/mt) or 3.5 percent since April 1.
$1 = RMB 7.0483
