Monitoring the situation in the global steel market, Pakistani customers of hot rolled coil (HRC) have preferred to take their time to evaluate current developments, not missing the opportunity to voice lower bids compared to the prices targeted by suppliers. As a result, foreign HRC suppliers have continued to revise their offers in order to obtain orders, though not succeeding in concluding new bookings so far.
On balance, while after the long pause in offerings Japanese suppliers returned to the Pakistan’s market in early October with offers at $1000/mt CFR, by the end of last week the suppliers were said to be ready to book material at $970-975/mt CFR. However, as the Pakistani re-rollers have continued to exert pressure, voicing bids at $950/mt CFR during negotiations, no new bookings have been heard so far. Likewise, ex-South Korea HRC suppliers have failed to attract any deals with Pakistani re-rollers, as the latter will hardly buy their material at above $940/mt CFR, while offers have been voiced mainly at $945/mt CFR, though down $25/mt over the past week.The most recent offers from Taiwan have been heard at $970/mt CFR. “Re-rollers are apparently booked until December; hence they are not in a rush to do any business. In total, approximately 100,000 mt of HRC were booked from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan last month,” the main trader based in Pakistan stated.
In the second half of September, as SteelOrbis reported earlier, ex-CIS HRC was booked at $880-920/mt CFR.