Even with the end of the religious holiday in the Middle East and some Mediterranean countries, steel consumers have shown little demand for steel products due to the financial crisis, and the reduction in steel-based goods production and also in end-user demand.
Meanwhile, during the 40th week (September 29-October 5) of 2008, both Russian and Ukrainian domestic market registered negative trends in prices in all segments.
Scrap: International and domestic consumers show no interest in scrap purchases
The Black Sea region scrap market continued to show sluggish demand for A3 grade scrap, forcing exporters from the CIS either to reduce their prices further or leave the market. Even after the Ramadan holidays, Turkish scrap consumers did not return to the market for active scrap purchases due to low demand for long products in the international market. According to market rumors, ex-Russian A3 grade scrap was offered at the level of $320/mt CFR Turkey. However, it is heard that buyers are reluctant to pay prices higher than $300/mt. Meanwhile, due to low demand, Ukrainian exporters have temporarily stopped their export deliveries.
Due to low demand for finished steel products in both the Ukrainian and Russian markets, the domestic steelmakers continued to reduce their scrap purchases during the 40th week. Because of the drop in both domestic scrap consumption and also in export deliveries, scrap processors in both countries have nothing to do but lower their offer prices. Thus, during the week in question scrap prices in the Ukrainian domestic market went down by UAH 250/mt ($47/mt) depending on the steel producer. Meanwhile, due to moderate demand for steel products in both markets, producers' stocks continue to rise, forcing them to roll back their production. This, in turn, has led to a reduction of scrap consumption, decreasing the price of material in the domestic markets.
Longs: International semis and longs continue to fall
Even with the end of the Ramadan holiday, the ex-CIS billet export market has not seen any recovery. On the contrary, due to the fact that some producers reduce their finished steel production, billet offer prices went down considerably. Thus, CIS-origin billet price offers went down by $60/mt for Iran, while for the Middle East offers dropped by $10-20/mt depending on particular offers. Meanwhile, some traders are talking about possible prices lower than $460/mt for the near future.
In line with developments in the CIS billet export market, rebar of the same origin has shown a negative trend. Due to the financial crisis, many construction companies have decided to postpone the implementation of their projects, decreasing their long steel purchases considerably. As a result of the sluggish demand, producers of longs are raising their stocks and reducing their capacities to sustain their prices at levels just above production costs.
Prices for longs products in both Russian and Ukrainian markets have continued to drop due to the almost non-existent demand at the current time. Thus, during the 40th week, the rebar price in the Russian market went down by about Ruble 2,000/mt ($77/mt), marking a record decrease. Meanwhile, the rebar price in Ukrainian domestic market dropped by UAH 260/mt ($48/mt).
Flats: Producers hope for recovery
Although European steel market players speak about relatively good levels of demand and are trying to keep their prices above certain levels by decreasing production, prices continue to drop in Europe due to the availability of cheaper imports. Due to low demand in the Chinese domestic market, exports of flats from this country continue to increase, creating price competition for Russian and Ukrainian flats in the European and the Middle East markets. Meanwhile, one of the main consuming markets for CIS origin flats,Turkey, shows no interest in buying as yet.
During the last week, the CIS domestic markets registered a continuation of their downtrend as regards flats. Thus, during the week in question, HR went down by Ruble 600/mt ($23/mt) in the Russian domestic market and by UAH 100/mt ($19/mt) in the Ukrainian domestic market. Meanwhile, CR dropped by Ruble 250/mt ($10/mt), depending on the region, in the Russian domestic market, and by UAH 42/mt ($8/mt) in Ukraine.