Posted on 01 Mar 2023
The slab import market is quiet in East Asia amid the strong run-up in overseas slab markets including Europe, Kallanish notes. While the regional hot rolled coil market is firm and mills are expected to push up prices this month, they need to also compete with other buyers in the international market.
Regional slab deals for April shipment have been struck at $590-620/tonne cfr Indonesia and Taiwan since early February, regional trading sources report. “The deal prices depend on the supplier and the booking date,” an Indonesian trader said on Tuesday.
An Indonesian blast furnace mill exported slab at $590/t fob to Taiwan in early February. “That was before HRC prices shot up,” a Taiwanese trader observes. This business equated to around $620/t cfr Taiwan.
Regional HRC prices rose in mid-February because of the improved Chinese steel market. Taiwanese mills are expected to hike HRC prices this week. The trader guesses that China Steel Corp will announce its new HRC sales prices at around $720/t fob, up from $680/t fob.
Regional re-rollers would also need to contend with higher slab purchase prices because regional producers can export to better-paying slab markets including Europe. The abovementioned Indonesian mill is heard to have exported slab to Europe at around $630/t fob around ten days ago, a regional trader said on Tuesday. A Vietnamese mill is meanwhile heard to have sold 30,000-50,000 tonnes last week. It would have been able to secure an export price of above $650/t fob, another trader says.
Despite the current rosy prospects for HRC and slab, regional Asian buyers are showing hesitation to place orders for this month because they fear they may be buying at peak levels. They want to avoid a repeat of last year when prices corrected quickly after sky-rocketing in March on supply concerns in Europe at the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Taiwanese trader notes.
Source:Kallanish
