China: HRC Export Offers Drop Amid Bearish Sentiments

Chinese export offers for the week declined by USD 25/MT,W-o-W amid prevailing bearish sentiments in the domestic market. High inventory and slack demand has led to drop in HRC export offers in the global market.

Current HRC export offers from China are assessed in the range of USD 485-495/MT,FoB China. Whereas, offers in last week were registered in the range of USD 500-510/MT, on FoB basis.

Meanwhile HRC prices in China’s domestic prices are heard to be in the range of RMB 3,760-3,800/MT which is equivalent to USD 543-549/MT.

Notably Chinese overall stockpile of HRC have witnessed the sharp rise in third consecutive week by 1.78 MnT, up by 5.3% against previous week. Although market sentiments remain dull as the overseas buyers are expecting sharp decline in HRC offers due to smog affecting the transportation system.

Buying activities also remain lean in first week of 2017 as many overseas buyers are returning back after the new year holidays. However, bids from South East Asia are hovering in the range of USD 490/MT, on FoB basis.

Hence, after showing down trend since past two weeks, Chinese export market has recovered the losses. Therefore, market participants have also adopted a cautious approach because sluggish demands might lead to further retreat in prices.

Export offers from CIS-Countries remain stable –
Export offers from CIS origin remain consistent this week and  are in the range of USD 490-500/MT, FoB Black Sea.

On the other hand, market participants shared that no firm HRC export offers were heard from Japan and South Korea as global players await decision on anti-dumping duty on HRC/CRC for which is  scheduled to take place  on 10th Jan’17.

HRC Export Offers as on 9th Jan 2017

Prices in USD/MT
Source-SteelMint Research