Billet
Lower supply level and the empty warehouses of
re-rollers increased billet price. Its price changed from USD 538/mt to USD 588/mt ex-work including VAT.
Long Products
Higher billet price made rebar price upward,
but high market inventory level along with weak demand made price fluctuations
limited. Its average price was changed from USD 654/mt to
USD 662/mt ex-work including VAT.
Higher billet price and limited supply of
steel beams raised its average price from USD 708/mt to USD 727/mt by end of
the week.
Flat Products
In HRC market, participants were
expecting upward trend but price management by Mobarakeh Steel co didn’t let
prices change significantly. HRC 2 mm thickness was USD 841 /mt ex-work Mobarakeh on Saturday,
which reached USD 844/mt by Wednesday.
Weak demand did not allow HRP price to
fluctuate much. It was up from USD 843/mt to USD 845/mt and returned to USD 836/mt
by end of the week.
As always, HDG price followed HRC market
fluctuations and changed from USD 1116/mt to USD 1083/mt ex-work including VAT.
Weekly Analysis:
In the world market:
Global market has remained almost constant. Scrap and billet
price improved a little, but demand did not change much. Oil price remained
stable above USD 80 / barrel and the possibility of its fall is limited. With the current
conditions, there is no possibility of any price reduction.
What will affect the market
in near future include export market issues and exchange rate.
In export market, after the agreement between
Iran and Saudi Arabia, China have turned to Iran market, and its desire to buy iron
ore concentrates, billet and slab is significant. From now on, market
participants should follow the export ring more closely.
In the domestic market:
Domestic market demand has remained confused
and weak. Power cuts has
practically minimized production of billet and limited its supply level, but
this problem will be resolved within next two weeks. After that, we will have
an increase in the price of DRI due to higher demand from billet producers.
The government is sensitive to the exchange
rate issue. Export of oil and natural
gas condensates has reached its highest level, this process has started from
three months ago. Naturally, it will improve government economic activities. Freeing currency
resources of Iraq, Korea and Japan will also reduce government's foreign
currency expenditures for food and medicine, therefore, higher exchange rate
will not be seen easily. But the problem is
that the increase in foreign currency income may raise the monetary base and
cause more inflation.
CBI average ex-rate for Steel Products
(SANA): Rials 372,102 / 1USD
21 Aug 2023
M.Chitsaz
Iran Steel News Bulletin
IFNAA.IR
IRSTEEL.COM