Amid new year holidays (Nowruz) from 20-23 Mar’20, no active offers were witnessed from the Iranian mills. However, just before moving off for the holidays, the country did manage to book 30,000 MT billets to China at USD 395/MT, CFR.
Also, during a conversation with the market participant, SteelMint learned, unlike Russian and other CIS mills, the Iranian mills are reluctant to sell at the low prices, as they have faced production loss and have pending bookings to supply. However, declining prices of scrap & billet remain a concern.
Iranian mills are expected to float fresh offers by next week. Few traders were indicating Iran billet export offers at USD 350/MT, FoB levels. However, it could not be confirmed till the time of publishing this report.
Meanwhile, in a recently concluded bulk deal from the UK, imported scrap prices to Turkey have plummeted heavily, with buyers pulling down their bids sharply. The depreciation of GBP (Pound) against the USD in recent weeks, has contributed further to the swift fall in the price level from the UK. According to SteelMint’s assessment, the prices have dipped to over five-months low as similar price levels were seen at the beginning of Oct’19.
After normalizing the latest booking, SteelMint’s assessment for USA origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) stands at USD 232-233/MT, down from USD 249/MT during mid of the previous week. As the UK’s currency GBP depreciated to USD 1.15-1.16 levels against USD in comparison to USD 1.30 levels 2 weeks ago, offers from the UK are likely to be on the lower side
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