Ex-India hot rolled coil prices appear to have completely lost their attractiveness in the GCC region due to the availability of lower offers from alternative suppliers. While until recently Emirati buyers favored ex-China HRC in their bookings, this week ex-CIS HRC prices have turned out to be even lower.
According to a few reliable sources, this week 20,000 mt of ex-CIS HRC have been traded to the UAE at $960-970/mt CFR. Although the origin of the HRC in the booking in question was at once discussed as being from Kazakhstan, market insiders later assumed that the material in fact originated from Russia. One way or another, the price is lower even than ex-China HRC, given the specification and the quality of material. Specifically, ex-China offers for SAE 1006 HRC with thickness above 2 mm have settled in a wide range, at $960-1,020/mt CFR, with the low end of the range having declined by $20/mt compared to the latest transactions for ex-China HRC. “As we do not ever buy from China, it could be a good alternative,” a major UAE-based re-roller stated. It is noteworthy that the buyer of the ex-CIS HRC also appears not to be a re-roller, but a pipe maker.
In the meantime, this week ex-India HRC in the UAE is available at $1,100-1,150/mt CFR, around $10-30/mt lower than in the previous week. “At these price levels, nothing will happen as the Chinese are too aggressive here,” a major Indian flats exporter commented. “lndian mills remain focused on the European market, while the Japanese have no allocation for our region, and they don’t want to sell to the UAE because of the lower workable prices there” an Emirati re-roller said.