Market insiders say that Russia's MMK has started making price cuts to foreign buyers seeing rather slack demand. In particular, offers of heavy HRC (19-22 t) are coming to third countries at $625/t FOB Novorossiysk, by $5/t down week-on-week.
The supplier is also ready to reduce offers to the EU. For example, HRC are available to Eastern Europe at EUR 490-500/t DAP Brest, while initial offers were by EUR 20-30/t higher. CRC quotations have decreased just by EUR 10/t from the bottom end of the price range over the past week and are now at EUR 580-590/t DAP Brest. However, no deals have been reported yet.
To Iran, MMK's HRC for May production are priced at $645-655/t FOB Astrakhan ($665-675/t C&F Anzali). However, as the similar material from ArcelorMittal Temirtau is changing hands by $10-20/t lower, MMK’s coils attract hardly any customers.
( Source: metalexpertsgroup.com )