Although some recovery has been seen in HRC futures prices in China, improving sentiments among market players, offers for ex-China HRC in Pakistan have declined slightly over the past week, given extremely slow demand coupled with uncertainly over the future price trend due to the fluctuations of futures prices in China.
More specifically, offers for ex-China SS400 HRC have been estimated this week at $510/mt CFR mainly for December shipment, down by $5/mt week on week, with a few deals reported to have been done at the abovementioned level. Meanwhile, offers for ex-China SAE1006 HRC have been voiced at $525-530/mt CFR, against $535/mt CFR last week.
The decline has been caused by further fluctuations of HRC futures prices in China, which by October 31 have increased by RMB 104/mt ($14.6/mt) or 3.0 percent since October 24, reaching RMB 3,587/mt ($503/mt), though down 0.14 percent compared to the previous trading day, October 30.
Meanwhile, indicative offers for ex-Japan and ex-Taiwan SAE1006 HRC have been estimated at $530-540/mt CFR, against $540/mt CFR last week. Besides, an offer for ex-South Korea HRC has been heard at around $545-550/mt CFR.
