Demand for import slabs from China has slowed down recently, following a number of deals which negatively impacted the mood in Asia. Moreover, the number of offers has increased with non-traditional sellers entering the market.
According to market sources, a large lot of ex-CIS slabs from the Black Sea region has been sold to Southeast Asia at $750-760/mt CFR. Usually, suppliers from the Black Sea are focused on trade to Turkey and Europe, choosing to sell to Asia only in rare cases when they are facing inventory build-ups and do not want to disturb the traditional outlets. This deal price is just slightly below the $760/mt CFR fixed in a deal from Russia’s Far East to China, reported last week.
Offers for ex-Indonesia and ex-India slabs are standing at $760/mt CFR or slightly above. “Currently, the HRC price has weakened. We get a lack of offers [for slabs] now as exporters target China,” an Indonesian importer said.
The Chinese market will resume operations tomorrow after two days of holidays. Last week, average HRC prices in the local market in China lost RMB 100/mt ($15/mt), coming to RMB 5,745/mt ($888/mt) ex-warehouse.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported slabs in Asia has been lowered by $5/mt on average from last week to $750-760/mt CFR.