Having still many difficulties in slab sales in most outlets in the global market, Russian suppliers have continued to focus on slab sales to Asia. Prices have shown another decrease, though not as big as previously as they are close to the production costs of sellers.
According to market sources, there have been two deals done from two different mills from Russia to China at $590/mt CFR and around $595-600/mt CFR, while the previous cargo of ex-Russia slabs changed hands at $600-605/mt CFR. Bids from China have weakened following the downtrend in the HRC segment, but slab prices have already fallen a lot, being the lowest in the region. Most Russian producers are selling slabs to China in RMB, and so the final prices may fluctuate depending on the exchange rate.
In addition, a sale for 20,000 mt of ex-Russia slabs has been done to Taiwan at $600/mt CFR, while the previous order for the same origin to the country was at $620/mt CFR.
There have been no new deals reported from Russia to Southeast Asia, like Indonesia or Thailand, but it seems that suppliers are working on doing deals.
“Russian slabs are quite cheap compared to any others,” an importer said. Offers for Asian origin slabs have been fluctuating at $720-760/mt CFR Southeast Asia.
“There were some attempts to increase scrap prices, but the Indonesian steel market is still so weak,” a source said.
The SteelOrbis reference price has settled at $600-740/mt CFR, with the midpoint at $670/mt CFR, down by $25/mt over the past week.
