Following a $15/mt drop in official offers for ex-China HRC from mills at the beginning of this week, and consequently lower offers and deal prices reported from Chinese traders globally, by the end of the week ex-China prices have started to recover in new deals given the recent rally in futures prices and local HRC prices in China.
More specifically, while export offers for boron-added SS400 HRC from big Chinese mills have remained at $535-550/mt FOB, by Friday, March 22, offers from small mills and traders have increased to $525-540/mt FOB, against $515-525/mt FOB at the beginning of the week. More specifically, the lower end of the range corresponds to ex-China SS400 offers in Vietnam at $535/mt CFR, up by $5-10/mt since the beginning of this week, while offers for Q195 HRC have increased by $15/mt to $530/mt CFR Vietnam, according to sources.
At the same time, this week Chinese traders have managed to sell sizable volumes of at least 90,000 mt in total of Q195/SS400 HRC in Turkey, though deal prices have increased from the initial $553-554/mt CFR (or around $520-524/mt FOB) to $555-556/mt CFR (or $525-527/mt FOB) in the second round of sales by the end of the week, while new offers have reached around $530-540/mt FOB for Turkish buyers.
Domestic HRC prices in China have settled at RMB 3,880-3,980/mt ($536.7-569.6/mt) ex-warehouse on March 22, with the average price level RMB 75/mt ($10/mt) higher compared to that recorded on March 15, according to SteelOrbis’ data.
As of March 22, HRC futures at Shanghai Futures Exchange are standing at RMB 3,822/mt ($528.5/mt), increasing by RMB 130/mt ($18/mt) or 3.5 percent since March 15, while up 0.53 percent compared to the previous trading day, March 21.
$1 = RMB 7.1993
