Billet: Billet price rose during last week in Iran domestic market due to high
demand of re-rollers.
Long Products
Rebar: Rebar price changed along with fluctuations of the
currency, while its demand was very weak.
I-beam: The change in ex-rate caused I-beam price to change, but its
price started to decline from middle of the week.
Flat Products
HRC: Like other items, the change in ex-rate was a driver for HRC price fuctuations.
HRP: Expecting improvement in currency rate raised Oxin co HRP
price, but its price returned at the end of the week.
CRC: CRC market also increased following the fluctuation of currency
market, but after ex-rate fell, it started a downward trend.
HDG: HDG supply and demand did not change seriously, but its price also
fluctuated due to the change in exchange rate.
Weekly Analysis:
In the world market: There is no significant change in global
markets, oil price is still below USD 80/barrel, scrap fluctuates at USD 380/mt
CFR Turkey and billet is around USD460/mt. HRC also showed an improvement of about USD 5-10/mt.
In the domestic market: The shadow of Gaza war on Iran's economy is quite
noticeable. On the one hand, the government is trying to control inflation and on the
other hand, crisis management. In terms of inflation, it manages the demand
through control of the banks' balance sheets, which causes the demand for steel
to decrease. During the last two months, this trend has caused production
of long products to reach its minimum, that's why most of the mills producing
rebar, UNP and channel do not have matched materials available. This is evident even
in the case of mills that produce billet and turn it into rebar themselves,
that's why the volume of buying billet increased sharply last week.
Fluctuations in currency prices also contributed to this and the competition of
the commercial sector made the volume of billet purchased in the stock market
to exceed 180 thousand tons for the previous week.
But in the case of rebar, demand is very weak,
as supply of rebar last week decreased to about 60% of the previous week and
reached 116,000 tons. While only 24 thousand tons of the total supply were traded. With the continuation of this trend, the base price of rebar will rise
following the increase in the price of billet in the stock market, but due to
the drop in demand in the market, its demand in the stock market will continue
to decline.
It is not expected to see a serious change in
the flat products market, many profile producers prefer to use belts produced
in the domestic market instead of sheets. This will affect the demand for sheets with a thickness of less than 5 mm,
while the market of slab in the world is declining. Naturally, it seems unlikely that the price of HRC will
increase. Recently,
Turkey has increased the import duty on the import of HRC from China, India,
Japan and Russia from 6% to 43%. Perhaps this is an opportunity for Iranian mills
that are facing an oversupply to be able to compensate part of the restriction
on the import of these countries. In
general, the market should wait for the clarification of the war in Gaza and
Lebanon.
CBI
average ex-rate for Steel Products (SANA): Rials 476,151/ 1USD
14 Oct 2024
M.Chitsaz
Iran Steel News
Bulletin
IFNAA.IR
IRSTEEL.COM