Following a relatively long wait for hot rolled coil (HRC) offers from most foreign suppliers, Pakistani customers came to negotiations once the first price indications were voiced. Although some offers have been turned down by Pakistani customers as being “absolutely unworkable”, a few deals have been done.
Accordingly, SteelOrbis has learned of a fresh booking of 12,000 mt of ex-Japan SAE1006 HRC at $680/mt CFR Pakistan, for February shipment, with offers having been announced mostly at $680-700/mt CFR at the end of last week. A cargo of 15,000 mt of ex-China SAE1006 HRC was booked at $650/mt CFR, for February shipment, while a small lot of SS400 HRC of the same origin was purchased at $616-617/mt CFR at the end of last week. In some cases, offers hit extremely high levels considered by Pakistani customers as unworkable. According to market insiders, one Pakistani re-roller has received an offer for ex-Turkey HRC at $730/mt CFR. Meanwhile, Taiwanese HRC suppliers have started to test the Pakistani market with offers at $700-710/mt CFR, for March shipment, though also with no agreement reached with any customer for now.
As SteelOrbis reported earlier, at the beginning of December a few small cargoes of ex-China SAE1006 HRC were booked in Pakistan at $615-620/mt CFR.