The Emirati customers of hot rolled coil (HRC) prefer to remain highly cautious as regards new bookings, expecting that prices still have room for a further decline. “Even though Indian mills might try to increase prices to some extent, there are no takers here as demand is very weak. Moreover, offers from China are much more competitive now,” a regional flats distributor commented with regard to the current market developments.
Accordingly, Indian suppliers have attempted to raise their offers for boron-added HRC to $655/mt CFR, up $15-30/mt compared to the levels in the previous round of sales to the UAE two weeks ago. However, no success has been achieved so far. “It may not be possible to achieve any levels higher than $625-630/mt CFR at the moment,” a representative of a major India-based HRC mill stated. Last week, a cargo of ex-Japan HRC is reported to have been booked at $640/mt CFR. Although some sources have doubted such low levels for ex-Japan material, others have reported bookings at levels even below $600/mt CFR, though this information has not been confirmed by the time of publication. Meanwhile, ex-China HRC is said to be available at $580-585/mt CFR, though given the official FOB prices and the current freight rates, the prices appear to be too low. There has been no information about bookings in the region at such levels so far.