In the Saudi Arabisan market, hot rolled coil (HRC) bookings were weak, while demand has remained slow in the past week. SteelOrbis has learned from market sources that 1.2 mm HRC offers given from Asia to Saudi Arabia have declined to $800-810/mt CFR. In previous week, offers given for material with this specification from Asia and Egypt were at $830-860/mt CFR. Despite this price declined, also with the influence of the approach of Ramadan, HRC transaction in the country is reportedly scarce, while a recovery is not expected until September this year. In the meantime, in the Saudi Arabian domestic market, local steel producer Hadeed is offering HRC of 2 mm and above thickness at $750-760/mt ex-works.
The situation of the UAE flat steel market is no different than Saudi Arabia. According to market sources in the UAE, HRC import offers given to the UAE are at the price range of $700-750/mt CFR. In the meantime, Iranian flat steel producer Mobarakeh Steel is offering HRC to the Saudi market at $730-740/mt CFR, while offers from Japan and South Korea for HRC of 2 mm above thickness stand at $720-740/mt CFR.
Chinese HRC offers to the Middle Eastern markets have increased as compared to last week, reaching $750/mt CFR. However thse offers are far from being competitive for the Middle Eastern market. Last week, ex-China offers to the Middle East were at $710-720/mt CFR.
It is though that the Middle Eastern flat steel market is currently as quiet as it can be ahead of Ramadan, while prices may slip until the end of Ramadan, that is until September. Accordingly, considering possible price decreases, buyers in the Middle East abstain from concluding large volume HRC bookings for their inventories.