Import hot rolled coil (HRC) offers to Pakistan have continued to climb in line with the global trend. However, Pakistani customers have become more cautious in concluding deals, having booked decent volumes previously. Pakistan’s re-rollers, needing to include increased costs in their prices for finished steel, are concerned that the revised prices will result in reduced demand among end-users.
By the beginning of this week, most current HRC offers in Pakistan had reached 560/mt CFR Karachi, up an average of $5/mt compared to the previous level, with the most active sellers being from South Korea, Japan and Turkey.
“Allocation is tight. Customers are making scarce bids mostly at $545/mt CFR, but this is already not acceptable to mills,” one SteelOrbis source commented. Last week, bids were barely voiced at the level of $535/mt CFR.
Nevertheless, SteelOrbis has been informed of a fresh booking of 10,000 mt of Taiwanese HRC done on Wednesday, September 2nd, at $560/mt CFR, for November shipment.