This week, CIS-based HRC exporters have finalized their export sales for October production. Still, most of them have not managed to avoid discounts, taking into account that demand has been limited and buyers, specifically from Europe and Turkey, have been exerting more and more pressure.
In Turkey, domestic HRC prices decreased by another $20/mt, and so the pressure on the import side has increased. As a result, a mill from Ukraine sold a large volume at $830/mt CFR, down $30/mt over the past week. Previously, a producer from Russia traded 30,000 mt at $880/mt CFR. In the meantime, Turkish mills have been facing rather challenging business conditions for exports and sales to the EU have mainly remained scarce. An additional factor in favor of falling HRC prices in Turkey is the subdued demand for coated and cold rolled steel as well as the declining prices for these products.
As a result, according to market sources, Russia’s MMK traded 230,000 mt of HRC overall for October production to the export markets, while NLMK had around 30,000 mt as the mill’s allocation is usually limited. Severstal will ship abroad around 250,000 mt of October rolling products, with most volumes destined to the EU and some to the MENA region. Specifically, in the Baltic region the supplier’s prices for the northern part of the EU have remained at $940-960/mt FOB, following the large drop seen last week. Severstal’s offers to the south of the EU have decreased by another $40/mt to $870/mt FOB Baltic. According to sources, Ukraine’s Metinvest is about to complete October production sales after deals to Turkey closed over the past couple of weeks. The mill still has some volume which is reported to be under negotiations for sale to Pakistan.
In India, export prices for HRC have been maintained over the past week, but Indian mills have reportedly been decreasing their trading activity due to buyers’ resistance. Some activity was seen from customers in Vietnam, Malaysia and South Korea, but they were seeking discounts. However, India has maintained its offers at $840/mt FOB in view of rising costs.
Ex-China HRC offer prices have edged down slightly in the past week, following the downtrend seen in the local market, where demand has been weakening and offsetting the impact from lower production.