The presence of Russian steel slab producers in the export markets has been limited lately. The mills’ offer prices from the Black Sea region are not competitive, particularly in Asia, while Turkey is asking for significant discounts since HRC prices in the country have weakened. In the meantime, some Russian mills claim they cannot afford much lower pricing than the current prices due to their high production costs. As a result, only Latin America has decided to book ex-Russia slab.
According to sources, a Russian mill has sold a considerable volume of slab to Mexico at $455/mt FOB. Market players assume the cargo is for around 40,000-50,000 mt for end of November-December shipments.
In Turkey, one of the Russian mills has offered $515/mt CFR, while another has dropped its price by $10-15/mt over the past week to $500/mt CFR. However, given the slack local HRC sales in Turkey and tough competition with cheap imports, bids for ex-Russia slabs are not higher than $470-480/mt CFR, SteelOrbis has learned. Offers from Asia are at $550/mt CFR as per the latest offers, which is not workable under the current market conditions.
In Asia, Black Sea-based Russian slab exporters have not been present for a while now. “The prices are too low while the high scrap prices in Russia gives a minus margin for additional slab production,” a mill commented. As a result, only the Far East-based Russian mill is, as traditionally is the case, in the market to sell slab to Asia, while the latest negotiations have been reported at $470/mt CFR or around $435-440/mt FOB.