Russia’s hot rolled coil (HRC) producer Severstal has cut its export prices over the past week amid slower demand, in the EU specifically. The approaching holiday season and the declining euro exchange rate has resulted in lower prices from the supplier and, moreover, has spurred its sales to more distant markets.
Severstal’s HRC prices for the northern part of the EU have decreased by $40/mt on the lower end to $1,200-1,240/mt FOB. Still, the market in southern Europe has been signalling weaker business and bids since offers from Russia have fallen from $1,040/mt FOB to $980-1,040/mt FOB depending on the volume and the customer. Taking into account the slower trade in Europe, Severstal has chosen to sell some volumes to more distant markets at $890-900/mt FOB Baltic.
Overall, with these deals Severstal has closed August production sales of HRC. The producer will ship around 200,000 mt in total, of which half the tonnage was sold to the northern part of the EU and the other half was traded to southern part of the EU and third markets, SteelOrbis has learned.