All the steel products at Black Sea exhibited a strong surge in prices last week due to limited availability and higher production costs.
FOB Black Sea prices for billets, last week, increased to USD 510 per tonne to USD 530 per tonne FOB Black Sea with offers going up to USD 550 per tonne levels.
We had reported on March 18th 2010 vide article “Ukrainian billet and pig iron prices to Italy hitting the roof” that price of billets from Ukrainian suppliers has taken more than USD 20 per tonne, jumping from a sale price of USD 550 per tonne CFR FO one main Italian port to USD 570 per tonne. Considering freight component of USD 30 per tonne to USD 35 per tonne for orders of 5,000 tonnes each, the selling price FOB ST Black Sea seems to have reached at least USD 530 per tonne.
It seems that market is still bullish and therefore that billet price could further go up, also due to a relative scarcity of available quantities and prospected productions.
Definitely with such growth, finished steel also had to follow and it did, but with the buyers resistance increase was smaller than for semis. But it was seen that offers varied a lot from supplier to supplier.
HRC from Ukrainian steel mills also increased by about USD 10 per tonne to USD 20 per tonne but the Russian producers are really trying to move the market higher by making last offers close to USD 670 per tonne.
Plate prices, which had not shown any remarkable movements till previous week, really jumped up last week. We heard that within the last week even low end producers have reconsidered prices couple of times and even a major Ukrainian mill is reported to have asked for renegotiation of prices for already concluded contracts.
As the prices in almost all regions are surging, buyers are likely to rush to Black Sea to secure volumes further adding fuel to the fire and we shall, in all likelihood, be seeing acceptance of such levels and may be further hike this week.
FOB Black Sea
Item Grade Size Change
Billets 3-5 sp/ps 125-150 mm 25
Rebars A300C-A500C 12-32 mm 15
Wire rod mesh 5.5-6.5 mm 20
HRC ST1-ST3 kp/sp/ps 2-8 mm 15
HRC ST1-ST3 kp/sp/ps (Russian) 2-8 mm 30
Plates A36 8-30 mm 40
CRC 08 kp (Ukrainian origin) 0.5-1.5 mm 0
CRC Russian origin 0.5-1.5 mm 20
Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010
Change is in USD per tonne
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(Sourced from www.steelprices-india.com)
