The general sentiment in Asia’s imported slab market has remained positive for now as some interest in demand for slabs is still seen in China and the outlook for the HRC segment has become a bit better lately in the Southeast Asian region.
There has been a rumour of a sale of a sizable volume of ex-Brazil slabs at $753-755/mt CFR China last week, and, even though this could not been confirmed by the time of publication, inquiries from China are still coming, sources have told SteelOrbis. “Bids from China are up to $750/mt CFR today,” a slab seller said. As reported earlier, the previous tradable level was $725-730/mt CFR in China in early October.
Demand from Southeast Asia has not improved so far. The lowest offers for slabs have been coming from the Indonesian producer Dexin at $740/mt CFR, though some customers in Asia said that it is hard to find offers below $750/mt CFR for now. No fresh offers have been reported for ex-Russia slabs so far, while the previous target was $750/mt CFR.
“If HRC prices go up, slabs can also increase. But now prices are fluctuating,” a slab buyer from Indonesia said. Compared to the previous week, the tradable level for import HRC in Vietnam has increased by almost $20/mt to $880-890/mt CFR as no low offers from Russia have been seen any more and a new deal for ex-India coils has been heard at the higher end of the range.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported slabs in Asia has been increased by $5/mt this week to $745-755/mt CFR.