Over the past week, import hot rolled coil (HRC) offers to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) market have moved sideways, while demand has remained weak. UAE-based buyers are staying away from making new bookings and are seeking to keep their inventories at current levels due to the approach of the new year.
In the given period, ex-China HRC offers to the UAE have remained unchanged at $520-525/mt CFR. Since the pressure on global HRC prices has eased as Chinese exporters have kept their HRC export quotations unchanged, Indian producers have also maintained their HRC export prices unchanged at $503/mt CFR. However, the high HRC inventory levels of Indian exporters have exerted additional pressure on their export prices. Also this week, no new HRC offer has been heard from the CIS to the UAE.