Chinese HRC exporters have lowered their prices early this week, following continuous declines in futures prices since last Thursday, the continuing considerable weakness of local demand, and lower raw material prices.
Major large Chinese mills have been offering boron-added SS400 HRC with thickness of 3 mm and above at $490/mt FOB, down by $10/mt since late last week and down $12.5/mt since last Tuesday. Some market sources said that several mills are still asking for $495/mt FOB, but generally all levels above $490/mt FOB are assessed as unrealistic and can be only from those producers planning more serious production cuts in the future.
The Chinese tradable SS400 HRC price (from small mills and traders) stands at $480-482/mt FOB today, August 4, declining by $6/mt from last Friday and down $7.5/mt over the past week. “Anfeng didn't manage to hold $487/mt FOB, so they lowered the price by $5/mt. But some mills are not making money. Demand is so bad,” a Chinese source said. Another important reason for the HRC price decline was some reduction in costs with the third round of coke price declines proposed today. “I still think we will see more production curbs in August,” one of the Chinese traders commented.
The indication for Chinese SS400 HRC in Vietnam has lost $5/mt to $500-505/mt CFR. At the same time, a decent tonnage of Chinese Q195 HRC has been traded to Pakistan at $505/mt CFR, which is below previous offers at $510-512/mt CFR.
As for Turkey, the latest offers for Chinese HRC have been heard at $527-535/mt CFR, slightly below $535-540/mt CFR seen last week. But still no new deals have been reported so far.
