China’s curbs on steel production, pollution and energy consumption have continued to support foreign suppliers of semi-finished steel products, in particular, based in Iran. However, taking into account the certain lingering challenges in freight industry, the traders continue to grasp every possible opportunity to get discounts.
Accordingly, on September 22, a major Iranian steel exporter closed its tender for 40,000 mt of steel slab at $678/mt FOB, for shipment in October. The price is $2/mt lower compared to the previous tender closed in late August. As the material in the recent tender is destined to be shipped to China, the CFR price is assessed to be hardly lower than $745/mt CFR, taking into account a freight being estimated at $65/mt and finance issues. As SteelOrbis reported earlier, in first half of September ex-ASEAN slab was traded to China in the range $755-760/mt CFR.