Billet
With the stagnation of long products market, billet
price was also down from USD 491/mt to USD 485/mt ex-work including VAT during
last week in Iran domestic market. Even delayed payment
offers did not have customers. As DRI price is
downward, it will affect billet market in near future too.
Long Products
Rebar price has reached the bottom, but its
transactions level has practically reached the minimum too. Its
average price dropped by USD 2 /mt to USD 564/mt by end of the week. The
current trend will cause closure of many mills, which would be a result of wrong
policies at the commodity exchange market.
I-beam price was also downward from USD 645/mt
to USD 631/mt due to lack of demand. Esfahan Steel co market management didn’t help
the situation to become better.
Flat Products
Mobarakeh steel co
HRC 2 mm thickness was USD 715/mt on Saturday, which reached USD 722
/mt ex-work by Wednesday. Lack of demand and the release of cheap inventories sold
three months ago reduced average HRC price of the mill from USD 746/mt to USD 737/mt.
Oxin co HRP prices stayed almost unchanged at
around USD 859/mt as the mill stopped delivering cargo. Besides demand is also
scarce.
CRC price changed from USD 1024/mt on Saturday
to USD 1017/mt by end of the week. Some thicknesses supply level is limited and
has made its market calm.
HDG price remained almost stable, but its
stability is under question.
Weekly Analysis:
In the world market:
1- Last week, due to stagnation of demand, India
removed export taxes on steel raw materials, which may reduce price of iron ore
concentrate and DRI.
2- Due
to renewed outbreak of Covid-19 in China, steel demand outlook is still weak
and unclear.
3- Determining the price ceiling for Russian
oil will put pressure on the price of oil and this will reduce billet price too.
4- Upcoming
New Year Holiday sentiment in global markets has affected demand outlook in the
northern hemisphere and USA.
Therefore, steel price and demand will both have
a downward trend in near future.
In the domestic market:
1- Average base price of DRI at IME decreased
by more than USD 31/mt.
2- For the first time, billet had no buyer at
IME, even delayed payment offers were not welcomed.
3- Rebar offers at IME were not sold. The
reason was the gap of more than USD 35/mt with the spot market.
4- The
restrictions that IME has created for the mills, so that those who purchase
their billet from IME must also offer thier finished products there too, has
caused the IME prices to be far away from the real market.
Today's market is under pressure from two
sides: The first one comes from speculators who have bought raw materials or finished
products at delayed payments and are offering them in cash in the spot market. If
mills want to have cash sales, must lower their prices very much which will
affect the whole steel production chain negatively.
The second problem is lack of confidence in
buyers and their cautious attitude, which is caused by the declining trend in domestic
and global market, with the addition of social issues. The only way to be out
of this problems might be encouraging export by the government.
CBI weekly average ex-rate for Steel
Products (SANA): Rials 287,981/ 1USD
28 Nov 2022
M.Chitsaz
Iran Steel News Bulletin
IFNAA.IR
IRSTEEL.COM