In North Africa, domestic HRC suppliers have been trying to avoid significant price movements with local demand being at moderate levels. However, a local Algerian mill has chosen to provide some incentives for large projects, while in Egypt, as many market players say, the price may be officially increased on June 21-22. As regards exports, Egypt is refraining from active offers, while Algeria has taken a step back in prices for some destinations, amid the generally negative market sentiment. While scrap prices continue to fall, demand for HRC in the region is rather sporadic and coming mainly from the African continent or non-EU European countries, while buyers in the EU are silent and are not expected to return until the quota issue is clarified. Lower ex-Turkey HRC prices have also been putting pressure on the region’s market.
In Egypt, the HRC producer’s presence in export markets has remained limited. In particular, the domestic supplier does not seem eager to offer firm prices since the market is clearly on a downturn. Some market sources state that indicative offers from Egypt are at $615-625/mt FOB for August shipments. In the domestic market, according to sources, there has been talk that Ezz Steel is about to increase its HRC price by EGP 1,000/mt ($20/mt) to EGP 40,000/mt ($703/mt) ex-works, but the information has not been confirmed by the time of publication.
In Algeria, the domestic HRC price has remained at DZD 108,000/mt ($680/mt) ex-works, but some (DZD 2,000-3,000/mt or $15-20/mt) discounts are applicable specifically for large governmental projects. Algeria’s HRC export offers have decreased to around $630/mt FOB for African countries, while remaining stable for the European Union at $680-690/mt FOB. “Although there is still July shipment material available, Europe is not interested in any import moves until the quota issue is clarified,” a market source told SteelOrbis.
In the import segment, most HRC offers have been coming from China and Turkey since Russian suppliers remain focused on sales to their domestic market, CIS markets and to Iran. Chinese HRC offers have settled at $580-590/mt CFR to Egypt and Tunisia with not much interest seen from the buyers’ side. Turkey was offering at $610-620/mt FOB initially, but, according to sources, it has ended up selling a considerable lot at around $600/mt FOB or $620/mt CFR. Algeria is currently not active in imports since local buyers are in the process of obtaining new licenses for volumes to be imported in the second half of the current year.
VAT in Algeria is 19 percent, while VAT in Egypt is 14 percent.
$1 = EGP 49.92
$1 = DZD 133.6
