TEX reported that transaction prices of HR coils have bordered on USD 700 per tonne CNF for a high of new offer prices in supplies into Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle East.
The new offer prices indicate an increase of USD 30 per tonne to USD 40 per tonne on what was predominant between late November 2010 and early December 2010. At the time, HR coils from Russia and Ukraine were on offer to the Middle East at USD 630 per tonne to USD 650 per tonne CNF, offer prices that were higher by USD 30 per tonne to USD 50 per tonne than the previous ones.
At present, there are no offers of HR coils exports to the Middle East by South Korea's POSCO. They point out a possibility that POSCO has stopped its offers or has begun to shun its HR coil exports at low prices.
With POSCO's virtual absence from the Middle Eastern scene, there are signs that Japanese integrated steelmakers have nailed down price increases one after another in negotiated Middle Eastern deals of their HR coil exports.
Meanwhile, in the USA local steelmakers achieved a cumulative price increase of HR coils by USD 100 per tonne to a level of USD 700 per tonne between late November 2010 and early December 2010, an all time high of prices since May 2009. In Europe, too, transaction prices of HR coils are reported to have turned upward since early December 2010 from doldrums in November 2010.