Demand for flats is still weak in the Emirati market. Pipe-makers have restocked in the middle and in the end of March. Now they have ceased buying to return in two weeks at least. At the same time, construction companies are totally inactive. Stockists have also adopted wait-and-see attitude in the current conditions, considering that they have enough material in stock for another three or four weeks even in case demand improves. Besides, prices for flats keep falling in the country. Stockists are planning to start purchasing more flats in late April at earliest, when they expect prices to hit the bottom and end-users'' demand to improve.
Ukrainian suppliers of HRC have dropped quotations by $25-40/t in two weeks, so now they have an advantage over the others. Offers from Iran''s Mobarakeh are also attractive to local buyers, as the manufacturer has reduced them by $30-40/t over the same period. Saudi producer Hadeed has also droppped its quotations considerably ($40-60/t in two weeks), but its material is still priced by $20-40/t higher than offers of the above producers. In the first days of April Hadeed set its quotations of HRC at $780/t C&F, but was ready to grant discounts of about $20/t during negotiations. As for suppliers from SE Asia, only South Korean exporters are offering their material to the UAE. Its prices have remained unchanged over the past two weeks and so are still unworkable. Chinese sellers returned from holidays just by mid-week and no offers from them have been reported.
In this situation stockists have been forced to cut their prices as well, though a bit less – by AED 25-100/t ($7-27/t). As a result, stockists’ quotations of the products of CIS and Middle Eastern origin are much higher than producers’ offers. Some trading companies are reportedly trying to sell December output from POSCO at AED 2,715/t ($740/t) ex-warehouse, which is almost equal to its purchase price. However, the offers are of no interest.
( Source: www.metalexpert-group.com )