The global slab market is still seeing shortages of supply, so major Asian exporters have been keeping their offers, if they have allocations, at high levels. After the previous round of sales to Europe and Turkey, trading has been rather quiet, but this is partially due to the fact that major Asian plate grade suppliers are sold out, while slab offers of other origins have emerged at even higher levels and the market is not ready for them for the moment. Some activity has been seen in Southeast Asia’s import slab market with a further price increase confirmed compared to the previous contracts.
Over the past week, a big volume of Chinese HRC grade slabs - from 100,000 mt to 200,000 mt, according to different sources - has been sold to Indonesia at $510-517/mt CFR, which is up by $5-12/mt compared to the previous deal to this destination reported two weeks back. “Slab bookings are hot in Asia, but buyers are only looking for cheap Chinese prices,” a trader commented. Southeast Asia’s import market has been the lowest priced lately, so the market still has some room to move up, market sources believe.
In Europe, Asian plate grade slab suppliers have been inactive after sales at $610-620/mt CFR in early April. “The shortage prevents any new deals,” a source commented. Only a few offers for ex-Algeria and ex-Turkey slabs have been reported at $600/mt FOB, translating to $620-630/mt CFR to southern Europe. However, a European source stated, “I don´t think they have achieved these numbers in deals.” The offer level for Asian HRC grade slabs to the EU has been at $600-605/mt CFR and higher.
The major Indonesian mill has been offering slabs for July shipment at $545/mt FOB, up by $5/mt over the past fortnight, but stable compared to last week.
As for Turkey, there has been almost no interest in Asian slabs due to their higher prices. The non-sanctioned mill from Russia has been offering at $560/mt CFR, which is also assessed as being too high by most players, which see the tradable level at $550/mt CFR maximum. The indicative price for sanctioned Russian slabs has been evaluated at $540/mt CFR.
