Due to the Chinese government's restrictions on usage of electricity within the scope of national policy to save energy and reduce emissions, both local prices and export offers have shown increases in China. Following the surge of prices in the domestic steel futures market, export offers for boron-added hot rolled coils (HRC) have risen to the level of $630/mt FOB. The Chinese government's measures to limit steel supply have caused market prices to increase for now; however, the future trend of prices will be determined by local demand.
Flat steel mills in CIS countries have started to issue their offers for October production and prices have shown increases varying in the range of $15-20/mt as expected. This week, in Russian mill Severstal's flat steel export offers from St. Petersburg, hot rolled coil prices have increased by $15/mt to $595/mt FOB, while cold rolled coil offers have risen to the level of $710/mt FOB. Similar to the past month, Russian mills' allocations of cold rolled coils for export are seen to be low.
While demand has yet to recover as the holiday period comes to an end, producers in Europe are expected to increase their flat steel product prices by €20-30/mt. Although buyers in Europe report that they are still not ready to accept increased import offers, it is heard that European steel service centers and end-users have started to show demand.
Flat steel markets in the Middle East and North Africa have made a quiet start to September as the end of Ramadan approaches. Demand in these regions is expected to gain some momentum in the coming weeks. Depending on the conjuncture in the global markets, it is thought that buyers in the Middle East and North Africa may speed up their buying activities.