Mainstream ex-China steel plate offer prices from mills have been heard at $940-950/mt FOB for October shipment as of today, Monday, August 16, moving up by $10/mt on average compared to August 9.
Reference deal prices have increased by $10/mt as well to $935-945/mt FOB to South America and Southeast Asia. Customers have mostly been reluctant to negotiate new sales, waiting for the government announcement regarding new export tariffs, expected in late August -early September. At the same time, production cuts in the country and higher production costs have been supporting ex-China plate prices.
During the given week, steel plate prices in the Chinese domestic market have been almost stable amid the rising trend of HRC futures prices in China, but weaker trading activity. Currently, the demand for steel plate has remained slack and it is unlikely to improve very soon, while downstream users have been unwilling to build up stocks. It is expected that steel plate prices may fluctuate within a limited range in the coming week.
Average Q235 20 mm steel plate spot prices in China have gained RMB 4/mt ($0.62/mt) week on week to RMB 5,660/mt ($875/mt) ex-warehouse, according to SteelOrbis’ information.
As of August 16, HRC futures prices in the most popular January contracts at the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed at RMB 5,629/mt ($870/mt), decreasing by two percent from the prices for futures contracts for October on August 9. The sharp drop is mostly due to the change of month of delivery.
$1 = RMB 6.4717
