The major Indonesian mill has kept its offers for slabs and HRC rather stable over the past week even though demand in the international market has been soft. But if the situation in the longs segment is visibly bad and offers have to gradually go down, for the slab and HRC, Indonesian suppliers try to follow the Chinese mills, who keep offers or even voice small increase, based on sentiments and high costs.
The latest offer for August shipment slabs has been at $510/mt FOB, stable from last week. For HRC, the mills’ offers are at $550/mt FOB. They have been confirmed in Vietnam at $568-570/mt CFR, from the mill’s point of view it is stable level, but traders who were offering Indonesian HRC to Vietnam at as low as $563-565/mt CFR have withdrawn their lower offers this week. “All prices are slightly up, but not because of many deals,” a SE Asian import source said.
Ex-Indonesian wire rod offer is at $500/mt FOB for August shipment, down by $5/mt from late last week. Market sources report slowdown of demand for longs in Asia and beyond, which is putting pressure on prices and at the moment in some cases Indonesian wire rod can be even more competitive that some Chinese mills’ offers.
There has been almost no change in ex-Indonesia billet price – it is at $483/mt FOB for September shipment, versus $485/mt FOB for October reported early last week.
