Billet
Billet price was almost unchanged
during last week in Iran. The average price by last Saturday was USD 371/mt ex-work
including 9% VAT and finished the week at around USD 377/mt. Since it was downward
recently, slightly improved by last week. Generally, Iran’s billet market was
affected by two factors:
1- Cold and snowy
weather which declined transport of billet
2- Supply of scrap and
its price
In the current
situation, price of scrap is not in line with billet price. Price of Steel scrap
was about USD 303/mt. After transportation and other costs, price of billet
should be above USD 351/mt ex-work including 9% VAT to be attractive for producers.
Besides, supply of scrap is limited due
to cold season.
It is common all over
the world that during recession time, due to lower construction activities, scrap
supply decline. Besides, mills which produce billet by using DRI were faced
with limited demand during last week which is another sign for long products
market depressed sentiment. DRI base price was USD 151-156 /mt ex-work
excluding VAT and buyers were not interested.
Cold weather has made
market quiet and trades will decline more. Otherwise, Long products mills would
need billet, which can increase the price of the commodity in coming days.
Long products
Debar price experienced
some up and downs during last week. Started the week upward, then stabilized and
by Tuesday declined by USD 3/mt to USD 432/mt. Finally, till end of the week it
was again upward.
Lower billet supply,
production cuts of debar mills and delay in production for some mills, made
debar upward.
it was announced late last
week that mills can order up to USD 300 million to import raw materials. This
is a good news for steel export market. The current recession will continue until
March, as construction in neighboring countries is also not active due to cold
weather. This has caused a lot of people to pay attention to ex-rate.
I-beam, angle and
channel market were also like debar. Till Tuesday prices were down and
afterward became upward a little.
Flat products
Price of Saba Steel co
HRC 2 mm thickness decreased during last week from USD 561/mt to USD 539/mt
ex-work including 9% VAT. Price of Ahwaz Rolling and Pipe co product also
dropped from USD 551/mt to USD 533/mt. Price has reached its bottom and there
is no room for further reduction. Mobarakeh Steel co also offered 80,000 tones
of its HRC Class B at IME at base price of USD 500.5/mt and finally sold it at
USD 514/mt.
HRP thickness 3 to 15 mm
had a slight improvement in prices. The average price of Saturday was USD 531/mt
and ended the week at USD 535 /mt ex-work
including VAT.
Oxin co HRP price was
almost stable with some sizes like 15 mm in limited supply. While Kavian co was
not active like previous weeks.
CRC market had a calm and
quiet week. Mobarakeh Steel co supplied CRC at USD 603.5/mt ex-work excluding
VAT and made market insiders worried, as around 20,000 tones was offered but
just 8900 tone was sold. HDG had a stable market with a limited price cut. The
average price at the end of the week fell by USD 5.5/mt to USD 905/mt ex-work including
VAT.
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CBI weekly
average ex-rate for Steel Products (SANA):
Rials 82,523/ 1USD
Jan 21, 2019
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Iran
Steel News Bulletin