In the past week, the Middle Eastern and North African hot rolled coil (HRC) markets have remained sluggish, with both domestic and import prices trending sideways.
In the Saudi Arabian domestic market, demand for HRC is significantly low. Saudi steel producer Hadeed is currently offering HRC to its domestic market at $780-790/mt ex-works, while 1.2 mm HRC import offers given from South Korea to Saudi Arabia stand at $860/mt CFR. In the meantime, HRC offers to Saudi Arabia from Egypt and Turkey at $730-735/mt FOB have been unable to find much acceptance in the Saudi market, since these offers are found to be high and also due to the sluggish market conditions.
HRC demand in Egypt and Tunisia is also weak. Egyptian flat steel producer EZDK is still offering HRC to the export markets at the base price level of $730-735/mt FOB, remaining unchanged as compared to previous weeks.
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) HRC prices are following a sideways trend. In the meantime, HRC import offers given to the UAE have not shown any change as compared to previous weeks and have remained at $740-770/mt CFR. Latest offers from China to the UAE for HRC have been at $715-720/mt FOB. Since freight rates from China to the UAE are approximately $40-50/mt, these offers reach $755-770/mt on CFR basis. Considering Chinese HRC offers to Middle Eastern markets were at $710-720/mt CFR in July, it can be seen that Chinese offers have increased by approximately $45-50/mt in the past month.
After the Ramadan holiday, HRC demand in the Middle East is expected to improve and the market is foreseen to witness increased activity.