During the 36th week of 2008 (September 1-7), the CIS export markets continued to show downward price trends as regards flats and semi-finished products. On the other hand, the CIS scrap and longs export markets, though they stopped falling, did not show any signs that they would rebound in the near future.
As for the CIS domestic markets, prices continued to decrease in both Russia and Ukraine for all product groups.
Scrap: Black Sea region scrap market sees continued calm
During the 36th week, the Black Sea region scrap market continued to be sluggish. Although Turkish steel producers were starting to show some interest in scrap purchases, most of this interest was focused on ex-US and ex-Europe scrap due to the price advantage involved. As regards ex-CIS scrap, the market saw almost no deals since the establishment of a new threshold of $510/mt for ex-Russia scrap. In addition, a continuous drop in semis and finished steel prices precludes Turkish buyers from active scrap purchases.
Meanwhile, a downward price trend continued in both the Russian and Ukrainian domestic scrap markets during the week ended August 7. Experiencing no competition in scrap purchases from the export markets, domestic steelmakers were able to build up substantial stocks and are at the moment successfully pushing their procurement scrap prices down.
Longs: Ex-CIS billets drop below previous bottom level
Although it was thought that billet prices had hit bottom by the end of August, at the beginning of the current month the weak demand in the Middle East, Iran and other CIS export regions pushed prices further down. For instance, during the week ended August 7, ex-CIS billet recorded a reduction of up to $20/mt, depending on the delivery region.
The CIS export market for long products, though it stopped falling, has not shown any signs of rebound as yet. The main reason for this is the start of the month of Ramadan and its effect on market activities. Buyers are expected to return to the market following the end of the religious holiday at the beginning of October and the market is expected to be calm up to then.
A price decline continued in the Russian domestic longs market during the 36th week. In comparison to the previous week, the price of rebar in the Russian retail market went down by about Ruble 600/mt ($24/mt).
Similar tendencies were observed in the Ukrainian domestic longs market, where traders had been trying to hold on to the same prices for some time. Nevertheless, rebar saw a reduction of UAH 150/mt ($31/mt) on average in the Ukrainian retail market during the week in question.
Flats: Widening price gap between Russian and Ukrainian origin flats
Export offers of CIS flats, especially of ex-Ukraine material, continued to drop in price during the 36th week. The almost total absence of orders for flats pushed Ukrainian producers to sharply cut their export offers, making the price gap between Russian and Ukrainian origin products more visible. However, there was sluggish purchasing activity in the Middle East and Europe, making it difficult to perform sales even at the reduced prices.
The Russian domestic flats market saw a smaller decrease in its flats prices than was observed during the previous week. During the 36th week, the Russian domestic market saw a drop of Ruble 250/mt ($10/mt) for HR and a fall of Ruble 50/mt ($2/mt) for CR.
The Ukrainian domestic flats market saw a continuation of its price reduction trend during the week in question. The price of CR and HR saw a drop of UAH 40/mt ($8/mt) each.