Sentiments in the global slab market have eased over the past few weeks mainly due to the declines seen in the Asian steel market, driven by the unusual decline ahead of the long holiday in China, which is starting very soon. Nevertheless, the latest deals and bids from major import sources have been relatively stable as overall allocation in the market has remained limited.
Offers from the main ASEAN slab suppliers have been officially at $600-605/mt FOB, slightly down from $600-620/mt FOB seen two weeks back. However, to non-Europe destinations, like Turkey or Latin America, producers have still been ready to provide discounts.
Ex-Indonesia offers for slabs for HRC production have been at $650-660/mt CFR in Europe. The last offers from Vietnam for plate-grade slabs were at $670-675/mt CFR: however, at the moment firm offers are limited as the holiday is very close. “No one is going to buy [in Europe]. Vietnam is also on holiday like China. And everyone will wait now for the end of the Chinese holidays. Chinese will come back and start with high prices. And then eventually they will go down when no one buys,” a European trader said. Another European source agreed, stating, “Sentiment isn’t great after China fell back a bit, but I believe it’s a little exaggerated. China is at the same level as it was a few weeks ago, just up and down. But I think talk of peaks in Europe and the US is driving fear.”
In Turkey, the latest deal for around 50,000 mt of ex-Malaysia slabs has been signed at around $625/mt CFR, almost in line with two previous transactions from the same supplier at $620/mt CFR done in late January. The market sources are assessing the deal as relatively stable as, given some increase in freight from Asia due to the Red Sea crisis, the FOB level has not changed or even is a bit lower than earlier.
The Russian slab export market has been relatively slow with only one deal from a non-sanctioned mill reported to have been done recently to Turkey at $590/mt CFR for around 50,000 mt, while the sanctioned material has been available at around $560/mt CFR, with no transactions reported. Ex-Russia slabs are still the cheapest source for Turkey. Ex-China offers from one of the major sellers were reported at $605/mt CFR last week, though there has been no confirmation of a deal being done.
In Asia’s import slab market, trading has remained poor. One deal from the leading Iranian mill has been done at $505/mt FOB and this lot is destined to Southeast Asia, market sources said, with the CFR level assessed at around $540-545/mt CFR. In late December, an ex-Iran cargo was traded at $480/mt FOB for the Asian market, signaling an improvement. However, it was due to the limited number of cheap options for buyers in the region rather than better demand. Ex-Russia slab suppliers are not in a hurry to sell in Asia now, and the targeted level would not be below $545-550/mt CFR Southeast Asia. Official offers from ASEAN mills are at $590-640/mt CFR Indonesia, too high for customers who can find at the same or lower level for SAE1006 HRC from foreign suppliers.
