CIS origin 2 mm hot rolled coil has declined in price by $20/mt in the current week, now standing at about $570/mt ex-stock Iranian northern ports, compared to around $590/mt ex-stock Iranian northern ports last week.
2 mm HRC is the specification with the largest share in Iran's HRC market due to its application in the production of hollow sections and other products. The price of this specification produced by Mobarakeh Steel at present stands at about $700-720/mt ex-stock Tehran - around $130-150/mt higher than the price of the equivalent CIS origin specification, as Mobarakeh has not supplied this size to the local market for a few months.
The prices of other sizes of hot rolled coil have generally been stable in the current week, while some sizes have even experienced a price reduction of about $5-10 per m/t during the week. Nowadays, 2.5-10 mm hot rolled coil stands in a price range of $595-650/mt ex-stock Tehran, with the same sizes at $600-660 last week.
Mobarakeh, the main local supplier of flat products, sold 2.5-15 mm HRC to the local market via the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) at $550/mt with 67-day delivery on December 14. For a few weeks now Mobarakeh has kept its HRC price unchanged for the local market; it was selling the same material at $560-565/mt in early November and at $580-590/mt in October.
According to the Iranian customs authorities, Iran imported about 970,000 mt of hot rolled coil in the first seven months of the current Iranian year (started March 21), marking an increase of around 25 percent compared to 780,000 mt in the corresponding period of last year.