The latest offer for ex-Indonesia slabs has been at $440/mt FOB for July shipment, which is down by $15/mt compared to early April. Though previously the Indonesian mill was more eager to hold slab prices at a higher level, it has become more flexible, trying to accelerate sales. So, the gap between offers for billet and slabs from the Indonesian mill has declined to $10/mt, from $25/mt in early April.
A cargo of 20,000 mt of Indonesian slabs was sold to Thailand at $460/t CFR for May-June shipment, with some sources saying the deal was done around 10 days ago. The price is equivalent to $440/mt FOB and is almost in line with what the Asian market saw in late March.
Other ASEAN mills have been inactive in slab sales lately, with no firm offers heard from Malaysia and Vietnam. This has been mainly due to the weak and unmoving import market in Europe.
In particular, the latest offers for ex-China plate grade slabs have been at $520-530/mt CFR, similar to what was reported a month ago, and, even though discounts of up to $10/mt have been widely discussed, this has failed to drive any purchases. Ex-ASEAN HRC grade slab offers to Europe have been near $500/mt CFR, similar to ex-Russia prices. The EU quota for Russian slabs is being exhausted quickly, so, after the previous sales at a lower level, there have been no major deals, with some small amount of June shipment Russian slabs still available, according to market sources.
According to sources, at least one Russian mill managed to sell slabs to Turkey at $450/mt CFR, while demand in Turkey for Asian slabs has been rather limited with offers not below $480/mt CFR.
At the same time, sanctioned mills have been trying to accelerate slab sales. At least one cargo of 40,000 mt of Iranian slabs changed hands in Indonesia at $440/mt CFR Jakarta, with the freight estimated at $30-35/mt. In addition, another Iranian mill has been offering at $410/mt FOB, but no sales of bigger volumes have been confirmed so far. Overall buying is restricted by “regular monthly needs of around 100,000 mt,” a trader said regarding demand in Southeast Asia.
Indian buyers, which were active in slab imports in March, have been silent and only one deal was heard from Brazil to India at around $540/mt CFR in the second half of April.