Recovery in the Iranian heavy plate market

The Iranian heavy plate market has been experiencing a recovery in the last two weeks, following several weeks of both price stability and decrease. Local mills are currently offering St37 10-40 mm plate at about $600-620/mt ex-works Ahwaz (southwest Iran), up from $575-595/mt about two weeks ago. 
 
Russian and Ukrainian origin St52 10-50 mm plates are standing at about $860-920/mt ex-stock Tehran, up from $815-855/mt about two weeks ago. Local Iranian mills usually prefer to produce St37 plates due to the greater demand for this product in the local market. Since they do not produce St52 grade, there is a large difference between prices of St37 and St52 plates in the local Iranian market.
 
There are currently some expectations in the local market for higher plate prices, especially as the two main Iranian suppliers of heavy plate, i.e., Kavian Steel and Khouzestan Oxin Steel, at present do not sell most sizes of plates.
 
Local production of heavy plate in Iran is insufficient to meet domestic market demand; therefore, Iran imports the shortfall from CIS countries, especially from Russia and Ukraine via the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf respectively. Iran imported about 277,000 mt of plate (thicknesses above 10 mm) in the first three months of the current Iranian year (started March 21), up 135 percent on the volume of 118,000 mt in the same period of the last Iranian year - according to the newly published figures from the Iranian customs authorities.