Generally, Chinese HRC export prices have been range-bound over the past week with only a small increase in offers heard from a few sellers. These attempts have not been taken seriously by sources in the international market, as they still see reduced demand for Chinese materials. But, on the other side, this signals that major HRC exporters believe that the market will not go down further and that for September shipment prices will have to be at least at the current levels.
Major large Chinese mills have been offering boron-added SS400 HRC with thinness of 3 mm and above at $500-505/mt FOB, which is $2.5/mt higher on average than $495-505/mt OB last week.
The Chinese tradable SS400 HRC price (from small mills and traders) price has settled at $487-490/mt FOB, $2-3/mt higher than that seen last week. “Anfeng tried $490/mt FOB, but we all see the real price is still at $487/mt FOB,” a Chinese trading source said. Last week, deals for Chinese SS400 were reported at near $485/mt FOB, but there has been very limited activity for HRC exports recently. “The export market is weaker in terms of demand, and some CRC from China has been traded to the Latin American market, while plate trades have been heard to Southeast Asia,” another Chinese source said.
The main reason behind even the small price increase attempts has been the production reductions in China recently, but, according to sources, this has mainly helped to prevent a downtrend and is unlikely to help prices to improve, at least for now. The indication for Chinese SS400 HRC in Vietnam is stable at $505-510/mt CFR. But since one deal for an ex-India mix of SS400 and SAE1006 HRC is rumored at $510-512/mt CFR, the general mood in the Southeast Asian market has remained bearish.
The offer prices for Chinese coils in Turkey have been stable at $535-540/mt CFR, but market sources said that traders are offering this even though freight rates have posted some increase by $2-3/mt at least, as they do not think that any buyers are ready for higher levels on CFR basis.
