Domestic spot Brazilian prices for hot-rolled coil steel were rangebound over the past week or so, although a few sources are still expecting price hikes.
The S&P Global Platts weekly assessment for Brazilian domestic HRC remained unchanged Friday at Real 2,955/mt ($795/mt) ex-works, excluding taxes, based on a range of Real 2,930 to Real 2,980/mt.
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A buyer said mills were trying to pass through a 5% increase for HRC, cold-rolled coil and hot-dipped galvanized steel, but it all depended individual negotiations.
There are some buyers that have yet to absorb previous hikes, so they continue to be the target of new increases. "It all depends on how much each customer has absorbed of the price hikes in the past months," he added.
Over the past few months, mills have made four attempts to raise prices. Sources say the main objective of consecutive price hikes was to help enforce initial increases.
The first source said he was paying lower values due to long-term relationships with suppliers.
According to Platts calculations, Brazilian HRC sold domestically at Real 2,955/mt ($795/mt) is currently about 7.66% above the Chinese HRC delivered price to Brazilian customers, after customs clearance, at $741.85/mt.
The same calculation for CRC sold domestically at Real 3,380/mt ($909/mt) is about 15.76% above the Chinese CRC delivered price to Brazilian customers, after customs clearance, at $789.12/mt.
Historically, Brazilian steelmakers have opted to keep domestic prices at a maximum 10% premium to imported material.
According to one trader, a few bookings for imported CRC started to pop up in the market giving the current import parity situation. He closed a deal for shipping Chinese CRC to Brazil this week at $650/mt CFR, he said.
