Having moved downwards for a long time, import hot rolled coil (HRC) offers to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have increased slightly following the rises seen in Chinese HRC domestic and export quotations at the beginning of the current week. Chinese HRC offers to the UAE, which were at $510/mt CFR last week, have increased to $520-525/mt CFR this week. However, it is still difficult to specify a certain trend for prices since market players think that the upward movement in Chinese steel prices is not sustainable due to the ongoing oversupply situation in the Chinese steel sector. Meanwhile, CIS-based HRC producers, whose price offers to the UAE were almost at the same levels as Chinese suppliers’ quotations last week, have made no offers to the UAE this week and are mostly continuing to adopt a wait-and-see stance, preparing to receive orders in January.
Meanwhile, major Indian steel producers have not made price offers to the export markets over the past week, while other Indian producers’ HRC offers to the UAE have remained at $530/mt CFR, but lack any price advantage. According to market sources, demand for import HRC in the UAE is slack and is unlikely to recover in the short term.