Global Flat Steel Market Overview - Week 39, 2018

Chinese HRC export offers slide further amid weak demand-Chinese HRC export offers fell further post mid Autumn holidays that ended yesterday owing to limited buying from overseas buyers.

Currently Chinese HRC export price assessment is heard around USD 565-570/MT, FoB China. Payment made on letter of credit basis for 1,000-10,000 MT. Last week the offers were hovering in range of USD 570-575/MT FoB China.

Meanwhile major mills are offering on higher side which is around USD 580-590/MT FoB China.

Domestic prices down by RMB 10/MT on D-o-D basis.Prices of HRC in the domestic market are gauged at RMB 4,380-4,300/MT (ex-works) in Eastern China and RMB 4,190-4,200 /MT in (Northern China).

CIS origin HRC export offers inch down further- CIS origin HRC export offers move down further amid excess supply of coils in market.Meanwhile softening of demand and weak purchases among overseas buyers pushing prices downwards in export market.

Currently Chinese HRC export offers heard around USD 530-540/MT, FoB Black Sea. Last week the offers stood at USD 530-545/MT FoB Black Sea.

However major mills were offering on higher side which is around USD 535-540/MT FoB Black Sea.

Absence of active HRC export offers from Japan to India- As per sources their are no active offers of HRC from Japan to India. Since Japanese HRC offers to India is higher than Vietnamese or Korean market.

Meanwhile Indian domestic market keeps higher prices despite depreciation of rupee currency.Now east Asian market is influenced by Russia or Turkey mills as they are offering material at lower prices. However Japanese mills currently don’t have enough capacity to export HRC to major importing nations over strong domestic demand.

Bangladesh steel importers book HRC for Nov shipments-Market sources shared with SteelMint that Bangladesh based major steel importer have actively booked HRC for November shipments.

A major HRC importer based in Bangladesh booked around 65,000 MT of HRC from Taiwan based company CSC at USD 620/MT CFR levels for Nov shipments. Meanwhile the importer also booked 65,000 MT of HRC with Russian based mill at similar levels for November shipments.