In the current round of sales, Russia-based HRC producers are refraining from actively giving firm export offers to their regular sales destinations, as had been anticipated. Two of the mills have continued to enjoy sales to Iran, where domestic production has been disrupted due to military attacks. The third Russian mill, the non-sanctioned one, reports it will have very limited or zero allocation for the current round of export sales due to better demand and higher prices locally.
According to sources, ex-Russia sales of HRC to Iran have remained quite active even though the market has become a bit more crowded in terms of the number of suppliers since Kazakhstan has been trying to sell regularly to Iran as well. The latest workable levels from Russia have been reported at $560-565/mt FOB and up to $570/mt FOB Astrakhan for buyers in Iran.
Aside from Iran, Russian mills have been covering slightly higher HRC demand from nearby CIS countries with the workable levels to this region reported at $520-530/mt FOB. As a result, the lowest targeted prices for the usual buyers from Turkey and the MENA region have been indicatively set at $520/mt FOB Baltic Sea ( up $20/mt over the past week) and around $515-520/mt FOB Black Sea, both for sanctioned material. As a result, with these targeted levels, the evaluated HRC offers to North Africa would stand at $590-600/mt CFR and to Turkey at $540-545/mt CFR, which is the level of the current indications from China for these markets.
Flats sales in the domestic market in Russia have also been a bit livelier, even though overall end-user demand is under pressure from high interest rates, cash flow issues and, recently, from higher logistical costs. Still, some positive seasonal effects have allowed some suppliers to increase their HRS offers from RUB 59,000/mt ($670/mt) CPT to RUB 61,000/mt ($695/mt) CPT, with other suppliers most probably to follow. “Domestic prices are clearly higher than any export levels to be achieved currently, but local sales are not high enough in volume to cut back exports significantly. Luckily, at least for now we can sell in the regions where competition with China is not relevant,” a source told SteelOrbis.
Local prices in RUB include 22 percent VAT.
$1 = RUB 72
