This week has been marked by a price downturn in the global markets, where the HRC trade remains active. In most cases, buyers have been able to push for discounts from both local and foreign suppliers since the demand has remained a challenging issue and in some cases, the business has been undermined by currency fluctuations and declines in the semis and raw materials.
In the CIS, the exporter from Ukraine decreased its export price by $10-15/mt to $830-850/mt FOB depending on the coil weight, specifically targeting to sell to Turkish market. Russian mills have chosen different policy depending on their key target markets. The Baltic region-based Severstal has dropped its prices for EU by $80-100/mt for the northern region to $940-960/mt FOB and by $10-20/mt for the south EU to $890-900/mt FOB. Russia’s MMK has been able to keep its indicative prices for Turkey relatively stable at $850/mt FOB, but mainly because the majority of the October allocation was sold to Asia – recently to Vietnam and previously to Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Taiwan. NLMK has been targeting to sell higher due to the traditionally limited allocation. Russian HRS local market decreased by $90/mt over two weeks, thus undermining the mills’ positions on exports.
In Turkey, domestic prices have fallen by $25-30/mt over the week to $900-920/mt ex-works while the export ones have dropped by $10-30/mt to $890-920/mt FOB with minor sales concluded to Europe. In the local market, there has been a drastic fall in the spot flats prices, putting the stockists in a more advantageous position according to the mills. In the import segment, lowest prices have been fixed from Ukraine at $850-880/mt CFR depending on the coil weight.
In the European market, the HRC demand and pricing situation has also weakened over the week with the workable prices being settled at €970-1,020/mt range in the Italian market and mainly in the €1,040-1,090/mt range in northern Europe, all ex-works. Imports remain challenging for the overseas suppliers as a lot of buyers are waiting for October 1 when the new round of quota kicks in and the incoming materials will be cleared through customs.
Demand for import HRC in Southeast Asia has improved in the given week. Three cargoes of ex-Russia HRC have been traded to Vietnam for the total tonnage of up to 100,000 mt at $850/mt CFR. After this the tradable level for ex-India coils in Vietnam has also slipped – to $870/mt CFR or below. The purchase of ex-Russia HRC have following a rumor about up to 60,000 mt sale from India a week before at $890-895/mt CFR. Demand improvement in Vietnam has been connected with expected ease of restrictions due to Covid-19 pandemic from October.
Indian HRC suppliers have been focused on sales to Asia. Apart from the tonnage rumored as sold to Vietnam, a few cargoes have been traded on traders at the same FOB level - $840/mt FOB or just slightly above with the targeted destinations Malaysia or Indonesia. The general level of prices from India have declined to $840/mt FOB versus $840-850/mt FOB last week. The prices do not include the level offered from India to Europe as no new deals for January have been reported so far.
