In the Middle Eastern flat steel markets, flat steel import offers have increased significantly as compared to last month.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, in the local Egyptian market in early January, domestic steelmaker EZDK had increased its domestic flat steel prices for the first time in six months. Following the general trend in the international markets, hot rolled coil (HRC) offers of EZDK for May shipments stand approximately at $780/mt FOB. Meanwhile, EZDK is expected to increase its flat steel export offers in the coming weeks and may push its HRC offers up to $800/mt FOB.
In the Middle Eastern flat steel markets, the short position offers of trading companies are usually widely heard. In previous weeks, in the Saudi Arabian flat steel market, offers given by international trading companies for 1.2 mm HRC were standing at $800-840/mt CFR. And this week, this offer level has increased slightly. In the Saudi Arabian domestic market, traders' HRC offers have increased by SAR 200/mt ($53/mt) as compared to previous weeks, reaching SAR 3,000-3,100/mt ($800-827/mt). ($1 = SAR 3.750)
In the UAE flat steel market, import HRC offers are currently standing at $760/mt CFR.