While Chinese customers have been taking a pause from new slab bookings, demand from Southeast Asia has returned. Prices have mostly been stable lately despite some weaker sentiment in the Asian HRC market. Russian, Iranian and Brazilian slabs have been offered and sold in the Asian market recently.
According to sources, up to 90,000 mt of ex-Russia slabs have been sold at $405-410/mt CFR to Thailand. The previous booking of Russian slabs to China was at $405/mt CFR in the second half of June and the workable level in the Asian market had already reached $405-410/mt CFR a week ago, as SteelOrbis reported earlier. Offers for ex-Russia slabs have been at $410-415/mt CFR recently.
Also, in total about 40,000 mt of Iranian slabs have been traded at $395-400/mt CFR to another buyer in Thailand, a number of sources said.
Slabs from Brazil have been offered at $410/mt CFR to East and Southeast Asia: however, there have been no confirmed bookings by the time of publication.
Some negotiations have been heard in Taiwan, but customers have been bidding at below $400/mt CFR.
Over the past week, import HRC prices in Vietnam have dropped from $440-445/mt CFR to $432-437/mt CFR, indicating overall weaker sentiment in the market, which may weigh on the Asian slab segment in the future. But sources said that there is still no ample supply for September shipment from major slab sellers, and so they will insist on the current price level.
