Prices for imported slabs in Southeast and East Asia have posted a visible increase over the past two weeks, which has been reflected not only in offers but in some deals for ex-ASEAN material as well, SteelOrbis has learned from the market.
A contract for 30,000 mt of ex-Indonesia slabs has been signed in the local market at $595/mt CFR, according to market sources. Moreover, before this deal, some tonnage to Taiwan was traded also, and, though the final price has not been confirmed by the time of publication, it has been assessed by market sources at $575/mt CFR or so. Two weeks ago, the offer price from the ASEAN region was at $550/mt CFR, then it increased to $570/mt CFR and finally even higher levels were fixed in deals. Such a significant increase was due to the absence of high volumes available from other sources.
No fresh offers for ex-Iran slabs have been heard in the Asian region recently. Moreover, the indicative price level for ex-Russia slabs has also increased - to $530-540/mt CFR versus $470-480/mt CFR in the middle of December, according to rumors. But there has been no information as regards whether the largest mill has big available volumes at the moment. In late December, there was unconfirmed information about a deal for ex-Russia slabs to Latin America at $510/mt CFR.
No demand has been seen from China for slabs and one Chinese trader has even been ready to sell ex-Middle East slabs, booked earlier for the Asian market, to distant markets. In particular, there have been reports that one lot of ex-Saudi Arabia slabs was sold at close to $550/mt CFR to Turkey in the second half of December.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported slabs in Southeast Asia has increased to $530-595/mt CFR with the midpoint at $562.5/mt CFR, up by $47.5/mt on average from that reported on December 19.
