Global HRC & CRC Market Overview- Week 39, 2019

Indian HRC export offers continue to remain on downside- Indian steel-makers have shifted their interest to exports in the backdrop of slump in HRC prices along with inactive trades happening in domestic market.

Yesterday, SteelMint had reported that major Indian steel mill booked 50,000 MT of HRC with Vietnam at USD 455/MT CFR Ho Chi Min for Oct-end delivery.

Currently, Indian steel mills are offering HRC exports to Vietnam at around USD 455-460/MT CFR basis which translates into USD 440-445/MT FoB India for Oct-end and Nov shipments.

Few market sources shared that, Indian steel mills are offering around USD 450-460/MT CFR Europe. However, deals couldn’t confirmed while publishing this report.

Thus Indian steel mills are actively exporting HRC to overseas nations in order to compensate inventories available in domestic market.

Chinese HRC export offers remain under pressure- Chinese mills have lowered their HRC offers further after being stable since past two weeks. Nation’s HRC export offers decline further over cheaper offers from India and Russia to Vietnam.

Currently nation’s HRC export price assessment is hovering around USD 455-460/MT FoB basis down by USD 5/MT as against USD 460-465/MT FoB basis.

However, Chinese exporters remain cautious even though domestic prices have surged in the market amid restocking ahead of China’s 70th National Day holidays scheduled from on 1 Oct’19.

Also, Chinese government’s announced measures for clear blue sky during the National Day celebrations shall restrict production till 4 Oct’19 which in-turn will keep nation’s steel prices supported in the domestic market.

Thus, domestic prices in eastern region spiked by RMB 50-60/MT on D-o-D basis and stood at RMB 3,650-3,670/MT.

Meanwhile, prices in northern region also surged by RMB 40-60/MT on D-o-D basis at RMB 3,600/MT. Prices mentioned above are inclusive of 13% VAT.

Imported HRC offers to Vietnam fall further- Access to cheaper imported HRC from India and Russia have weighed on imported HRC offers from China.

Last week Vietnam importers booked around 30,000-40,000 MT of HRC with Russian at USD 441-442/MT CFR basis for Nov shipments. Along with this few bookings from India lowered imported HRC offers to Vietnam.

Current imported HRC offer to Vietnam

1. HRC (SAE 1006) 2-3mm/ Chinese offer- Magang is at USD 455/MT CFR Vietnam.

2. HRC (SAE 1006) 2mm/ Korean offer– Hyundai is offering at USD 470/MT CFR basis which was USD 475/MT CFR Vietnam in the previous week.

3. HRC (SAE 1006) 2mm/ Russian offer-  MMK Steel is offering at USD 441/MT CFR basis (for small coils) and USD 451/MT CFR basis (for big coils).

4. HRC (SAE 1006) 2mm/ Indian offer- Indian  Steel is offering at USD 452-455/MT CFR basis.

CIS- origin HRC export offers move down amid low demand- This week CIS nation’s HRC export offers moved down further by around USD 5-10/MT and hovering at USD 415-425/MT FoB basis against USD 420-435/MT FoB basis heard last week.

Global HRC & CRC market overview- Week 39, 2019

Source: SteelMint Research