The strong uptrend in the flats market currently seen in Turkey is providing significant support to the steel slab deal prices from the CIS. According to market sources, up to 50,000 mt of slabs have been sold recently in a couple of deals at slightly below $380/mt CFR. The previous transactions were done last week at $370-375/mt CFR, as SteelOrbis reported earlier.
The slab offers from the CIS are coming at $385/mt CFR and above as the sellers target a new rise in the coming deals. The SteelOrbis FOB assessment has moved up by $10/mt since earlier this week to $365-370/mt. “If the $440/mt levels for [Turkish HRC] are accepted, some higher slab prices might be seen also on the import side,” a source believes. However, the business activity in the slab sector will also depend on the scrap price trend and the number of raw material cargoes available. Other sources say that, if scrap remains unchanged at $260/mt CFR, the room for slab prices to rise further will be limited.