Billet
During last week Iran billet market was full
of ambiguities. Average price changed from USD 372 /mt to USD 367/mt ex-work including 9% VAT.
Khuzestan Steel co sold its billet on Saturday last week with USD 6.5/mt
increase in price at IME at a closing
price of USD 333/mt , but on Tuesday, when it came to a wider supply, it traded
30,000 tonnes of its billet at USD 337 /mt. Besides, Khorasan Steel co billet
was not interested for buyers on Monday and finally on Wednesday around 8,000
tons of it was sold at price of USD 337/mt. The above price behavior is indicative of
a price tendency to rise. Under current conditions, supply restriction of DRI and
scrap continues, and therefore billet supply has been limited. However, billet
market trend has been downward due to two main reasons:
The main reason was social tensions which effected
economic activists.
The second reason was the rising price of debar
which ended in its market quietness. However, given the continued export trend
and limited supply of DRI it is unlikely that the price of billet will drop
significantly.
Long
Products
Domestic price of debar, which averaged USD 413 /mt last Saturday, became
USD 421/mt on Monday due to restrictions of billet supply, but fell to USD 420/mt
since then. The rise was due to economic factors, but the decline was due to
political conditions.
A gap of more than 10% between debar and billet price has improved
re-rollers’ profit margin, therefore market will be waiting for higher debar
supply which will make its price lower. Besides, higher profit for debar
producers will also end in higher billet demand and improvement in its price. But
generally as market is quiet, insiders expect stability at current prices with
limited fluctuations.
Last week the price of I-beam was relatively stable and average
price changed from USD 478/mt to USD 477/mt. Political tensions were a factor
contributing to price stability as loading from Esfahan market was difficult.
Flat
Products
HRC 2 mm thickness in Iran domestic
market was down from USD 558 /mt to USD 530 /mt ex-work Isfahan including 9%
VAT. Ahwaz Rolling and Pipe co product also declined from USD 512 /mt to USD 502
/mt. For HRC thickness 3-15 mm price was up from USD 543 /mt to USD 572
/mt but then became downward to USD 547
/mt.
Oxin co HRP was up from USD 522/mt to USD
534/mt. If this upward trend continues, Khouzestan Steel co slab price will
rise too. Kavian Co HRP followed the same trend but its price by end of the
week was back to beginning of the week at around USD 513 /mt.
Domestic CRC market was active just
second half of last week being traded at around USD 713 /mt ex-work including
VAT while its market was not very booming.
HDG price rose from USD 748 /mt on
Saturday to USD 768/mt on last Tuesday. This was due to the rise in the price
of HRC and better ex-rate, but fell back to USD 751 /mt on Wednesday, which was
still affected by HRC and ex-rate lower trend.
CBI
weekly average ex-rate for Steel Products (SANA): Rials 107.485 / 1USD
25 Nov,
2019
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Iran
Steel News Bulletin