Foreign hot rolled coil suppliers to Egypt have increased their offers by around $10-20/mt over the past two weeks, following the general uptrend in the market and having the opportunity to sell to Asia at more advantageous levels. Egyptian buyers, however, for now find themselves not in a position to accept new import prices.
Ukraine’s Metinvest has been offering $420-425/mt CFR for big coils to Egypt. In the meantime, Russia’s Severstal, according to sources, has offered €375/mt CFR or around $420/mt CFR. MMK and NLMK are taking their time to give a solid price and prefer to watch market developments.
The latest offers from the European Union have been reported at $420-425/mt CFR Egypt. In the second half of May, around 5,000 mt of HRC of the mentioned origin were sold at $400/mt CFR.
Offers from Turkey to Egypt are at $430-440/mt CFR for August shipments, though being of no interest to the Egyptian buyers despite the geographical proximity. “I doubt today that there is anyone ready to buy far above $400/mt CFR,” a local source told SteelOrbis.
