Middle Eastern and North African HRC markets to trend sideways in August

The Saudi Arabian hot rolled coil (HRC) market has become increasingly quieter each week. SteelOrbis has learned from market sources that 1.2 mm HRC offers given from Asia to Saudi Arabia have remained unchanged at $800-810/mt CFR. However, these offers fail to attract much attention from Saudi buyers.
 
In the meantime, HRC offers given to the UAE have not shown any significant changes as compared to last week and the latest offers have been at $710-750/mt. In the UAE market, 2 mm HRC offers given from the Far East are at $720-740/mt CFR, while Chinese offers stand at $750/mt CFR.
 
In the Middle Eastern HRC markets, due to weak demand ahead of Ramadan, no price changes or improvements in transaction activity are expected in the short term.
 
The market situation in North Africa is no different than that in the Middle East. Egyptian flat steel producer EZDK, which had kept its domestic HRC prices unchanged at EGP 4,350/mt ($730/mt) in early July in consideration of sluggish local demand, is expected to announce its new local HRC prices for August next week. In the meantime, EZDK is offering HRC to the export markets at $740/mt FOB. However, this price level is considered to be high in the international markets. Nevertheless, since imports of Egyptian origin material are duty free in Saudi Arabia, EZDK's HRC offers to Saudi Arabia are found to be reasonable by local buyers.
 
Ramadan, which will begin next week, is expected to cause HRC prices to trend sideways throughout August in the Middle East and North Africa.