End-user demand in the UAE HRC market has remained unfavorable, but import offers for HRC, particularly from China, have started to increase. This upward trend may influence other suppliers in the coming week, but currently suppliers are not willing to make any offers considering the market's negative mood.
On the other hand, with the new Chinese offers, importers in the Emirates are attempting to maintain confidence for the trend of prices as well as for a rebound in the local market. In the meanwhile, Emirati buyers have remained reluctant to book owing to the very slow market activity.
“Demand is too slow and buyers are not in the mood to book, while the construction project market is also dull. However, this week we saw rising Chinese prices without any additional drop. Let's hope that prices continue to rise and impact the market,” a representative of a major re-roller told SteelOrbis.
Over the past week, ex-China offers for SS400 HRC have increased by $10-25/mt CFR to $600-625/mt CFR for September shipment. In addition, according to sources, China sold some lots to Saudi Arabia of around 15,000 mt in total at $585-595/mt CFR last week. However, current offers have been reported at $625-630/mt CFR.
Offers from the majority of Indian suppliers have been quiet in the past couple of weeks precisely because of the same concerns for the UAE market. Similarly, there have been no ex-South Korea HRC offers this week because the offer made last week at about $650/mt CFR for September shipping drew no interest from Emirati buyers.