The situation in the import slab market in Asia is weak as poor demand has been preventing prices from rising, though the market conditions in the HRC segment have improved. The only bright spot is China, which has slowly started to show interest in import slab purchases. In the export market in Asia, offers of slabs have also been limited as producers from the ASEAN region have managed to sell good volumes of HRC abroad and do not have a great need to conclude slab sales, at least at the moment, SteelOrbis has learned.
The indicative price level for ex-ASEAN slabs has been assessed at $530/mt CFR Southeast Asia, stable compared to two weeks ago. After a sale to Europe from Vietnam at $490-495/mt FOB, there have been no fresh sales of ex-ASEAN slabs in the export market. “They [ASEAN mills] have increased billet offers to $505/mt FOB minimum. I don’t think that they will offer cheaper slabs,” a trader commented. The latest slab offers from ASEAN region-based mills for January shipment have been heard at $510/mt FOB. Major Vietnamese producer Formosa Ha Tinh sold slightly less than 200,000 mt of HRC in the export market over the past two weeks, which significantly eased inventory pressure on the supplier.
“We do not see many indications from Asia, nor from Iran,” the representative of an Indonesian mill said. As reported earlier, one lot of ex-Iran slabs was sold to Southeast Asia at $450-454/mt CFR, which translated to around $400/mt FOB or slightly below. Even though Iranian slabs were subsequently sold at $385/mt FOB, the sales destinations were not Southeast Asian, with no fresh inquiries from the region.
At the same time, a cargo of 40,000 mt of Iranian slabs is heard to have been sold to China at $445/mt CFR last week.
Russian slab suppliers have also been inactive. Only one major seller from Russian Far East ports has allocation, trying to push some volumes to Asia. Offers to China have been heard at the fairly low level of $440-450/mt CFR, but early last week counterbids were only at $410-420/mt CFR. At the moment, bids have reached the offer levels from Russia, but there is no confirmation of new deals. Market sources are watching the situation as China has started to resume slab imports given the better situation in the HRC segment.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported slabs in Southeast Asia has remained stable at $470-530/mt CFR over the past ten days.