The Gulf Cooperation Council hot rolled coil market has stabilised, with prices unchanged since last week with minor exceptions. Japanese and South Korean mills are reluctant to offer workable quotes as they find rivals' current offers much lower than their target prices. Currently, only Chinese and Indian mills are offering for enquiries.

Last week, the workable price to conclude a deal was expected at $790/tonne cfr GCC, while suppliers’ initial proposals were at $810-820/t cfr. Sentiment has not changed, but buyers’ new concern is whether Indian boron-added HRC will become subject to export duties whose cost would be transferred to the buyer, Kallanish understands.

This week, 2mm thickness SAE 1006 re-rolling grade HRC price offers for Indian boron-added HRC for July shipment and Chinese non-boron HRC for early-August shipment are unchanged on-week at $810-815/t cfr. Pipemaking grade of S235JR and S275JR for multiple thicknesses of 1.7-7.4mm is meanwhile at $800-810/t. However, Japanese and South Korean mills are still targeting $850-900/t cfr GCC, which does not spur any buying interest.

"Buying sentiment for HRC is still at $790-795/t cfr GCC,” explains an insider.

"Onwards next week, we will see Japanese mills lower offers and, I guess, they will take their position on the benchmark price of $790-810/t cfr GCC range,” opines a trader.

Negotiations for multiple sizes of entirely 2mm thickness re-rolling grade boron-added HRC for 10,000 tonnes are expected to be finalised in a deal this week at $810-820/t cfr for July shipment.

In Saudi Arabia, 1.2mm thick SPHT-1 grade HRC offers for China and Taiwan mills’ material are heard at $890-900/t cfr Dammam. This compares to the Egyptian offer for the same material at $950/t cfr Dammam and $930/t cfr Jeddah for July/August shipments. Taiwanese mills' HRC prices are typically $15-20/t higher than Chinese HRC. However, this time, the Taiwanese seller aims to increase the tonnage of a bulk shipment of cold rolled coil consignment for end-July shipment, so that the freight cost will be lowered.

Saudi Arabia's and the region's sole HRC producer has minimal production allocation for August rolling due to technical issues at its hot strip mill, keeping its price high at $1,020/t delivered within the country. The company is expected to compromise at $970/t delivered for firm bids.