The Iranian hot rolled coil market has continued to decline under the influence of global steel price trends. Iranian traders are currently offering CIS origin 2 mm HRC at about $550-555/mt ex-stock Anzali (northern Iranian port), compared to around $580-585/mt about 10 days ago. Meanwhile, 3-12 mm HRC sizes (produced by main domestic flats producer Mobarakeh Steel) are currently being offered by local traders at about $620-630/mt ex-stock Esfahan, down $10-15/mt compared to 10 days ago. The price of Mobarakeh production HRC in the local market has registered a smaller decline in the last few weeks as compared to local market prices of CIS origin HRC.
On May 31, Mobarakeh Steel sold about 15,000 mt of HRC via the Iran Mercantile Exchange to local buyers at about $590/mt with 40-day delivery. In spite of the declining trend of HRC prices in the global markets in the last few weeks, Mobarakeh has not yet reduced its sale price for the local market. Of course this may be explained by the fact that in the last few months Mobarakeh HRC sales prices for the local market have been lower than global levels.
The Iranian HRC market had been on a rising trend from early January this year up to April when prices reached a peak level of about $680-710/mt ex-stock. This rising movement reflected the global trend in the period in question. The current falling trend has been in evidence since early May.
Iran imported an unprecedented volume of HRC in the last Iranian year (ended March 20), with a total of 2,066,000 mt recorded. The low rate of import duty on HRC (i.e., four percent) may explain this rise in the HRC import volume.