Plate prices have come down considerably in the Iranian market. Nowadays grade St37 or S235 plate of 15-30 mm thickness is standing in a price range of $1,155-1,165/mt ex-stock Tehran, while it stood at about $1,300/mt only around two weeks ago. This represents a decline of close to $150/mt - the highest price drop among all flat products in the Iranian market for the period in question.
Local traders in Iran who fear greater price reductions and even further losses are now offering at lower prices, while other traders with sufficient financial resources have closed their sales in the hope of seeing a recovery in the market. Kaavian Steel, which is the sole producer of heavy plate in Iran, at first resisted the downward trend. The mill delayed reducing its prices until last week even though a declining trend had been observed in the local market since the beginning of July. This situation meant that a lot of traders were selling Kaavian Steel's plates at lower levels than the mill's prices.
There is shortage of plates in Iran, especially for widths of over 1,200 mm - Kaavian Steel is able to produce widths of a maximum of 1,200 mm. The main overseas suppliers of plate to Iran have included the CIS and, in more recent years, also China. The price of CIS origin St37 or S235 plate is usually about $150-200/mt higher than the Kaavian Steel price, while local traders are selling some grades such as St52 or S355 at prices significantly higher than grade St37 or S235. Foreign suppliers have a small price difference of $10-20/mt between St37 or S235 and St52 or S355, while the difference in local traders's prices for these materials is about $150-250/mt.
Iran imported about 700,000 mt of plates in the last Iranian year (21.03.2007-20.03.2008), according to Iranian customs data. However, the country's plate import figure is expected to drop substantially with the commissioning by the end of 2008 of Okxin Khouzestan Steel, a new rolling mill located near the southeastern Iranian city of Ahwaz. This plate mills will have an annual capacity of one million mt per year and will be able to roll plates of widths up to 4,500 mm.