Russia’s flat steel prices have once again surged over the past month, supported by sufficient demand, limited supply and the generally bullish mood in the global market. Moreover, along with the almost traditional increase already seen on the export side, domestic offers for June have soared in Russia.
As regards exports, Russia’s Severstal has succeeded in selling HRC at $1,170-1,200/mt FOB to northern Europe recently, up by $20/mt from the upper end over the week. MMK, according to sources, traded sizeable lots to Turkey at around $1,030/mt FOB or $1,050/mt CFR earlier in May and is currently out of the market due to lack of allocation. NLMK has been rather quiet in this round of sales but Turkish buyers assume they sold a bit less than 20,000 mt of HRC to Turkey since last week at around $1,090-1,110/mt CFR for June production. “They sold 2,000-3,000 to each re-roller here I believe,” a local source told SteelOrbis.
Local sheet prices in Russia have seen a tremendous increase over the past month, partly since domestic levels were much underpriced compared to export prices. Local hot rolled sheet offers for June have settled for now at $1,160-1,182/mt (RUB 103,000-105,000/mt) CPT, while prices for cold rolled sheets are at $1,330-1,408/mt (RUB 118,000-125,000/mt) CPT, SteelOrbis has learned.
Local prices in RUB include 20 percent VAT, while prices in US dollars do not.
$1 = RUB 74
