North African HRC export prices have shown a slight weakening over the past month under pressure from market conditions such as lower scrap prices, lower workable import flat steel prices in key sales destinations and tight competition with Turkey, whose HRC price levels have fallen significantly over the past month.
The Egyptian flats producer has remained active in HRC exports, concentrating on the destinations other than the EU where it now has a 12.8 percent antidumping rate, which was revised from the earlier announced 15.6 percent. As a result, less than 10,000 mt of HRC have been recently sold to Turkey at $560/mt CFR which, according to sources, translates to around $545-550/mt FOB. In addition, around 10,000-15,000 mt have been traded to the UK, while a large volume has been sold to Latin America at $530/mt FOB, market sources state. Currently, the supplier’s offer stands at $550/mt FOB for July shipments, down around $10/mt from the previous round of sales. Domestic HRC prices in Egypt have been stable for many months now, translating to around $575/mt ex-works.
The Algerian HRC supplier, according to sources, is now offering at $570/mt FOB for July shipment, down by around $5-10/mt over the past week. The domestic price of HRC in Algeria is currently at DZD 90,000/mt ex-works or around $620/mt ex-works, based on $1 = DZD 133.41 and excluding nine percent VAT.
Turkey, which is the main competition for North African HRC mills in the region, is offering HRC for export at $550-565/mt FOB, while earlier the workable level was down to $540-545/mt FOB for some destinations and is currently available but not so widespread. Now when import scrap prices have inched up again and Turkish mills are not under pressure in terms of increasing trades, being sold out for June, they may attempt returning to the higher levels to see the market reaction.
Import offers to North Africa from Russia have been reported at $472-480/mt CFR for June production, while the last tonnages for May and June rolling were sold in medium lots within almost the same range. Chinese offers, according to sources, have been coming at $515-530/mt CFR depending on the destination, volume and freight, and for July shipments. Currently, the Egyptian market in particular is not active in terms of HRC imports due to the recently announced safeguard investigation against all origins.