Posted on 04 Oct 2023
Gulf Cooperation Council hot rolled coil buyers have been silenced, freezing their enquiries or, in desperation, minimising their volumes this week during the absence of Chinese and Indian offers, notes Kallanish.
Buyers are waiting for the Chinese Golden Week holiday to be over and for Chinese supply to emerge from next Monday. In the meantime, one buyer received a 1.2mm SPHT-1 grade offer at $600/tonne cfr GCC from a Chinese trading company for November shipment. This is nearly $10-15/t below last week's price offers.
Last week, a non-Chinese Far Eastern mill concluded a 20,000-tonne deal for multiple thicknesses of re-rolling grades (SAE 1006, SAE1008) HRC for December shipment. Sources close to both the buying and selling sides quote $600/t cfr. However, the buyer's target price was $565-570/t and indicated to bidders during negotiations. Many believe the deal to have closed at $580-590/t. Taiwanese offers were hovering at $605/t base, while average effective price was at $608/t for December shipment.
Again last week, the South Korean major submitted its re-rolling grade (SAE1006) new HRC price of $605-610/t for December delivery, a $45/t reduction on its previous offer in mid-September. A trader says: "From previous year examples, in the last month of the financial year, the South Korean major comes to the market with very competitive offers, bagging deals and dragging the prices."
Also, Iran's Mobarekeh Steel allocated small volumes of HRC for export, quoting 2.5mm ST3702 grade – roughly equivalent to SS400 – at $580/t fob Iran, equating to $612/t cfr GCC for November deliveries.
If not mentioned otherwise, all price indications are based on cfr Dammam, United Arab Emirates or Sohar ports.
The only HRC producer in the bloc, the Saudi mill, has yet to invite enquiries from buyers for December rolling to produce its list price. It has been heard that it will undertake a maintenance shutdown in December and, therefore, has limited allocation for December shipment.
"We don't hear offers and enquiries this week,” a trader comments. "Next week, when Chinese futures are opened, and Chinese HRC prices surface, we expect to see more offers from unconventional suppliers. This week, the Vietnamese mill reduced its HRC price and Chinese traders inched down their price offers by nearly $10/t on-week."
Source:Kallanish
