US slab market following flat rolled downward

The US slab market continues to be soft, with prices following the declining trend of hot rolled coil prices.

There are a good amount of import slab offers to the US, but hardly any transactions are being concluded. Elsewhere in the world, it is observed that some small tonnage slab orders from Brazil are being booked by China, South Korea and Indonesia. US buyers say that Brazilian slab is currently offered at approximately $300 to $310 /mt FOB loading port, which represents a decrease of about $30 /mt from a month ago. Prices may drop even lower through negotiation.

Demand for hot rolled coil and, as a result, slab, is weakening further due to the sluggish flat rolled consuming sectors and dismal economy. US mills are operating at a less than 50 percent capacity and are struggling to get orders and are offering at increasingly aggressive prices in order to get business. With no immediate rebound of the flat rolled market in sight, the pricing trend of slab, in the US and worldwide, is expected to continue to trend downward in April.

As a result of the soft demand, the amount of slab imports has been steadily decreasing. In March, the total amount of slabs imported to the US was only 36,077 mt, compared to 78,942 mt in February and 148,239 mt in January. This figure also reflects a significant drop of 316,836 mt when compared to the figure of 352,913 mt imported in March 2008. The largest quantities of import slabs arriving in the US during the first quarter of 2009 came from: Russia, at 185,863 mt; Mexico, at 40,606 mt; and Japan, at 34,589 mt. Other smaller slab sources during this period included Canada, Italy and Germany.