SMU received the following information from one of our Asian sources earlier today. Prices in China and Taiwan have been bouncing about over the past couple of weeks and, as you will read below, not everyone is interested in buying at these new numbers.
“HRC [hot rolled coil] prices have risen in last few days… China at USD550/mt FOB ST. [$499 per short ton, fob stowed vessel] for 3.00mm [.118”] RRQ [Re-rolling Quality] SAE1006 and Taiwan is now at USD560/mt FOB ST. [$508 per short ton, stowed vessel] for 2.00mm [.0787”] in same quality. Korea is offering to Japan USD600/mt [$544 per short ton] CNF FO for same quality and thickness.
However, NO ONE is buying…
1.00mm [.03937”] CRC in DC01/CS Type A/B/SPCC-SD is now USD730/mt CNF FO [$662 per short ton] from Russia and meaning USD700/mt FOB ST [$635 per short ton] from Far East port (Vladivostok).
BUT NO ONE IS BUYING.
Chinese CRC is around USD700/mt Domestically [$635 per short ton] and if you add all the import taxes etc..., it does not make much sense to import at this stage and EXPORTS from China are zilch for last one month John.”