Ex-India hot rolled coil (HRC) prices have continued to soften, but have still failed to attract any significant buying with distributors in Europe bearish over the medium-term trend and holding back from deals while buyers from the MENA region are moving to cheaper alternative sources, SteelOrbis has learned from trade and industry circles.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-India SAE1006 2mm HRC has been cut by $10/mt to the range of $670-740/mt FOB over the past week, with the higher end of the range said to be “unrealistic” and it refers only to the large mills’ offers to Europe.
Offers for European customers from large mills have been at $800/mt CFR, versus $800-825/mt CFR last week, though no new deals reported so far.
At least two market intermediaries said that they heard two offers of 5,000 mt and 10,000 mt submitted by a private mill to buyers in Nigeria, but deals could not be completed as the bids fell significantly below the offer of $710/mt FOB indicating that “most destinations are turning extremely price sensitive”.
“The weakness in the Asian region is spreading. There is still strong end-use demand in Europe. But trade channels are pessimistic over prices and are unwilling to look at imports. To make matters worse is the low business in the Middle East for Ramadan,” an official at a private mill said.
“Considering that most Indian mills have increased export allocations sharply for April-June, sellers will be compelled to make more aggressive sales overseas. But I think this will happen after assessing how the market trend emerges in the Middle East post-Eid. With mills in China having completed price reductions, some stability can be expected by then,” he said.
