Foreign suppliers have increased their hot rolled coil (HRC) offers to Egypt since earlier this month, following the general uptrend in the market and supported by limited allocation and strong raw material prices globally. However, Egyptian buyers are not yet ready to pay higher levels, with only some lots sold from Europe at the end of last week.
According to sources, ex-Ukraine prices for big coils have increased by around $15/mt since last week to $450/mt CFR. The producer is more or less sold out for July production and so its offers are for September shipments, SteelOrbis understands. Russian mills are nowadays out of the market, having sold the volumes allocated for export for July production.
Turkish mills, supported by delayed demand locally and high slab and scrap prices, have increased their offers for exports by around $10/mt over the past week. In Egypt, ex-Turkey HRC is available at $455/mt CFR on average, while the cargoes are for August-September shipments.
One of the EU-based suppliers has been fishing with around $445-450/mt CFR in offers. As the end of last week, another European mill sold 10,000-15,000 mt of HRC to Egypt at $445/mt CFR base.
No solid presence of Asian HRC suppliers has been reported by Egyptian customers: however, India may give offers in the coming days, SteelOrbis understands.
Overall, the bids from the largest HRC importers in Egypt have been reported at closer to $430/mt CFR.
