China’s plate exporters maintained their offers in the past week, although trading activity in both the domestic and overseas markets weakened.
Fastmarkets’ price assessment for October shipments of steel heavy plate export, fob China main port was $500-510 per tonne for the week ended Tuesday August 25, unchanged a week earlier.
A trader in Zhejiang province said most mills would not accept prices below $505 per tonne fob China in the past week. A few traders estimated $500-505 per tonne fob to be the lowest achievable prices if buyers placed firm orders.
*** small transaction
The Zhejiang-based trader said that he had heard about a small transaction being concluded at $505 per tonne fob China with buyers in Southeast Asia in the past week.
He noted that the price was much higher than the market average considering that most buyers in the region were not willing to pay any higher than $490 per tonne fob China.”
He added that the cargo was also exceptional in that it consisted of a special grade used in construction.
Plate export activity in China was largely muted in the past week. A Shanghai-based trader said his overseas customers were buying cheaper cargoes from Japan instead.
*** export offers for Chinese plate
Despite that, export offers for Chinese plate remained high, with a source at a mill in northern China disclosing that its offer for this week was $515 per tonne fob, narrowing upward by $5 per tonne from $510-515 per tonne fob in the past week.
A source at a second mill in northern China said they continued to offer its products at $505-510 per tonne fob, the same as last week.
This is due to the stability in China’s domestic plate market, he said.
*** Domestic steel plate
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel plate domestic, delivered whs eastern China was 3,990-4,010 yuan ($577-580) per tonne last Friday, narrowing upward by 10 yuan per tonne from 3,980-4,010 yuan per tonne the week prior.
But despite the stable prices, trading activity in China’s domestic plate market was reported to be also weakening.
A trader in Anhui province said several major mills’ inventories are growing due to falling downstream demand.
As such, many market participants expect Chinese plate prices to drop in the next few weeks.
But these decreases are unlikely to be rapid, they said. They expect mills to spend more time gauging demand before making any decisions to cut offers.
Costly iron ore is also providing support to steel prices, they noted.
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