Suppliers have managed to increase prices for slabs in Asia owing to stronger demand from China and steadily rising bid prices. Following the latest deals, offers for slabs have already hit and exceeded $500/mt CFR.
Russian slabs have been sold at $485/mt CFR and then at $490/mt CFR to China, which is $5-10/mt above the tradable level seen a week ago. Moreover, a Malaysian producer managed to sell slabs to China at $495/mt CFR last week, SteelOrbis learned.
But, subsequently, the price ideas of sellers from Russia and other Asian suppliers have all increased to $500/mt CFR and above, reflecting still good sentiment in the flat steel market in China. “We are very close to $500/mt CFR [for slabs] as HRC prices in China are already at $550/mt FOB [in deals for SS400],” a source said. Last week, import HRC prices in Vietnam added $15/mt in total, coming to $565/mt CFR.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported slabs in Asia has reached $490-495/mt CFR, up by $10-15/mt over the past week.
