This week was rather hard for steel suppliers. In the majority of the regions they had to decrease the prices. Namely, in CIS traders offered billet for export at $570/t
fob (- $10/t in a week), but mills were keeping mark of $600/t fob waiting for Turkey to start buying scrap and billet which could stop the price fall. Rebar&WR
suppliers are currently out of market. Coils are being offered only from Ukraine (May production) and the prices have dropped to $650-690/t fob for HRC. Although it is a just a correction of a too high level, traders see it as a sign of trend reversal. In the same time plate suppliers have finally come to the market in full force and have raised prices by $30-135/t. Suppliers of scrap have switched to local shipments seeing no demand from abroad and are not planning to export till mid-May. Pig iron exporters intend to stick to the same strategy.
In Turkey, exporters of longs have voiced different intentions thisweek: after they dropped prices by $25-30/t in the beginning of the week, they began assuring buyers that they will try to increase them in the back of rumors that scrap purchases will start soon.
In the Middle East downward trend got further development. Market insiders believe that some demand for longs exists but stokists will wait until they feel price bottom is near. The exception is Saudi Arabia which has even lifted import duty to cover shortage of rebar amid high construction activity. Foreign suppliers should be pretty much interested as rebar prices here reached $780-790/t exw. Flats market remainscalm. Meanwhile,
in UAE Chinese suppliers squeezed out CIS sellers by offering HRC at least $40/t lower. Iranian flats market is also not favorable for them as Mobarakeh rices are lower and there are big tocks of HRC ex-CIS in Anzali.
European flats producers are optimistic despite demand has weakened in most countries. Traders keep stocks at the optimal level and purchase only in accordance with the orders. Most mills behave inertially: Marcegaglia has put HR flats quotes up by EUR 20-40/t, US Steel Serbia plans a hike of EUR 80-90/t. However, there.s a sentiment that producers have to make concessions soon. Scrap prices have been moving down at a slower rate due to satisfactory demand from local buyers.
Chinese longs exporters have not cut offer prices, but were making deals by $10-20/t lower. HRC producers still keeping export prices stable, but stockists lashed $50-80/t off export quotes, to $630-650/t fob. Most probably mills will have to follow.Steelmakers are still holding off from imports of raw materials. In the end of the week appeared rumors about some deals but most of the players are not taking that for granted and believe mills will start buying in June. Demand for pig iron is absent since the current offer prices exceed bids by $50-60/t.
Asian mills, namely in Taiwan, Singapore and India, made downward correction of longs prices but due to scrap quotations and demand weakening rather then because of competition with Chinese. SEA is not a really good market for CIS and Turkish semis and longs sellers, as their not attractive.
In USA producers expect scrap quotations will increase again in May and help to continue bullish moves. Now flats prices have rolled-back. Only rebar suppliers could reach target level of $700-710/t exw.