Local flats prices in Russia have moved down over the past month in all of the main segments, reflecting the weak market fundamentals in the key consuming industries and difficult financial issues including high interest rates. The largest decline has been seen in hot rolled sheet prices since the mills chose to even them out with traders’ ex-warehouse levels, which had been very aggressive in the previous couple of months.
Particularly, the new prices for November production HRS from mills are at RUB 55,000-56,000/mt CPT, down by RUB 4,000-5,000/mt over the past month, which in US dollars means a drop of $35-45/mt to $565-575/mt CPT. The latest HRS prices from traders have been at RUB 52,000-53,000/mt ($535-545/mt) ex-warehouse. In the meantime, Russia’s local HRC mills’ prices are mainly at RUB 61,500-62,000/mt CPT or at $631-635/mt CPT, down by RUB 1,500-3,000/mt ($9-25/mt) over the past month.
While the market situation domestically in Russia is not so promising, Russian mills prefer to keep a large share of their allocation for export, where prices have not been moving as much as in the previous couple of months. Two out of the three mills have started offering for December shipments, particularly, the sanctioned material is offered at $485/mt CFR to North Africa and the GCC and, moreover, the mill has succeeded in closing deals for up to 80,000 mt. The FOB level for these is assessed at $420-435/mt FOB depending on the destination. In the previous round of sales for November, the supplier traded at least 70,000 mt at $485-495/mt CFR MENA.
In Turkey, the indications for sanctioned ex-Russia HRC have been reported at $480-485/mt CFR for December shipment, while the buyers’ price ideas are at least $15-20/mt lower. In the meantime, the non-sanctioned Russian mill, according to buyers, has been offering December HRC at $500-505/mt CFR Turkey, while some have mentioned $510/mt CFR, down from $510-515/mt CFR fixed in sales for November production. The FOB price for the latest offers is assessed at $485-490/mt.
$1 = RUB 81.25.
Prices in RUB include 20 percent VAT.