China
The China's steel market has been volatile this week.
Looking at the hot rolled coil market, although HRC prices in the China's domestic market showed a slight improvement after the recovery in hot rolled coil futures prices, HRC offers from traders decreased on an annual basis. Moderate demand abroad was cited as one of the reasons for this decline.
For example, most major Chinese producers' boron-doped SS400 export offers were mainly at $580-590/mt FOB for March shipment, while they were at $585/mt FOB, down $7.5/mt compared to last week.
According to SteelRadar's weekly evaluation, in the week of January 16-24, HRC reached its peak at 569 USD on January 23. The lowest level was recorded as 558 USD on January 22.
Looking at the iron ore market, iron ore futures rose to higher levels after the Chinese government promised to stabilize the market.
The most traded iron ore contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) in May rose 1.42% to 965.5 yuan ($134.70) per metric ton in daytime trading. Coking coal DJMcv1 increased by 0.3% and coke DCJcv1 increased by 0.73%. On the Singapore Exchange, the February iron ore benchmark rose 2.01% to $131.55 per tonne, the highest level since January 12.
The New Year holiday in China will take place between February 9-17. Factory workers will go on holiday and production will stop. Many steel mills made purchases of iron ore to meet their production needs during the Lunar New Year holiday break.
According to SteelRadar's weekly iron ore assessment, in the week of January 16-24, iron ore peaked at 146 USD on January 23 and 24. It saw its lowest level at 142 USD on January 18.
India
No significant differences were observed in the Indian steel market during the week of January 16-24.
Looking at the hot rolled coil market, prices have decreased slightly due to weak demand in Europe and the domestic market. Mills are quoting HRC at $710-725/t ($650-660/t FOB) CFR Europe for shipments from February to mid-March; A slight decrease was observed in these offers compared to previous offers.
Vietnamese buyers demanded lower priced Indian HRC last week, but no large tonnage deals were concluded, sources said. While Indian steel producers maintained their HRC export offers to Vietnam at $635/ton CFR Ho Chi Minh City last week, Vietnamese buyers preferred prices of $600/ton and below.
It was stated that Indian steel producers have largely restricted their HRC export offers to Vietnam since the summer months as they focus on the local steel market where margins are better.
Jindal Steel and Power, one of India's leading companies, announced a Rupees 1,000/ton ($12) increase in flat steel prices.
Following the revision, PM sheets now range in the range of Rupees 64,000-64,500/ton ($770), while the price of HRC (2.5-8 mm) stood at Rupees 57,000/ton ($685) ex-Mumbai.
According to SteelRadar's weekly HRC assessment, for the week of January 16-24, HRC reached its peak at USD 655 on January 16. The lowest level was 652 USD on January 18.
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