The sustained slump in currencies combined with an influx of slab in the aftermath of recent trade measures have dragged slab import prices down in Southeast Asia and East Asia, participants told Fastmarkets MB.
Fastmarkets MB's assessment for slab imports in Southeast Asia and East Asia was $500-515 per tonne cfr for the week ended Monday October 1, down by $20 per tonne from the previous week. The range is at its lowest since December last year, when the weekly assessment was at $490-500 per tonne cfr on December 18.Supply glutIncreased slab availability from various origins - in particular Brazil, Iran and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) - was the biggest reason behind Asia's prices reaching an intra-year low, sources told Fastmarkets."Plenty of slab cargoes are coming to this region while demand isn't increasing, so the tradable price will probably drop further to below $500 per tonne cfr within this month," an Indonesian trader said on Monday.Some sellers were trying to prevent prices from falling further by claiming they only had low volumes allocated for export, another Indonesia-based trader...