This week in the UAE, as in the rest of the GCC, no deals for HRC have been announced, and trading activities have continued to be postponed. Meanwhile, despite Emirati customers' anticipations of price decreases in the previous week, import HRC offers have remained mostly the same. However, since HRC futures prices have recovered somewhat in China, Chinese suppliers have begun to increase their offers over the past week. Market participants claim that, because of the slow local demand, the approaching month of Ramadan and the unstable pricing for HRC, buyers are still reluctant to make purchases and prefer to observe the market.
As a result, over the past week ex-China SS400 offers to the UAE have increased by just $5-15/mt to $495-510/mt CFR for March shipments.
Meanwhile, HRC offers from India are stable week on week at $525-530/mt CFR for end-of-March shipments.
Similarly, although Taiwan has not disclosed any new offers, Japanese suppliers have maintained their earlier offers to the UAE at $510-515/mt CFR for June shipment.
