Chinese hot rolled coil (HRC) export offers have risen slightly during the past week, supported by the firm trend in the local market and overall limited offer volumes from such exporters like India, Japan and the CIS.
At present, export offers for boron-added SS400 HRC given by major Chinese mills are at $495-505/mt FOB, up $5/mt on the upper end of the range compared to last week. At the same time, deals have been done at $495-500/mt FOB to South America and Southeast Asia, supporting overall sentiments in the market. However, offers are unlikely to see big changes for late March deliveries of Chinese HRC as most suppliers will leave the market by the end of this week for the long holiday. “Ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday, there have been insufficient resources among global HRC suppliers, resulting in the firm trend of HRC export offer prices,” an international trader told SteelOrbis.
The local Chinese HRC market has fluctuated within a limited range recently. Domestic HRC prices in China were at RMB 3,750-3,820/mt ($544-554/mt) ex-warehouse on January 14, with the average price level RMB 15/mt ($1.4/mt) lower as compared to January 7, according to SteelOrbis’ data.
During the given week, demand in the local HRC market has slackened ahead of the approaching Chinese New Year holiday. Meanwhile, market players have tried to lower inventory levels ahead of the holiday, reducing prices to some extent in order to conclude sales. It is expected that local HRC prices will move sideways in the coming week.
As of January 14, HRC futures at the Shanghai Future Exchange are standing at RMB 3,596/mt ($521.6/mt), increasing by RMB 8/mt ($1.2/mt) or 0.22 percent since January 7.
$1 = RMB 6.8945
