Japanese steel mills are going to initiate the negotiation of carbon steel hot rolled coil price for next January with their customers in Middle and South & Central America. It is expected those mills could up the HRC prices about US$10~US$15/ton. For the steel market in Middle and South & Central America, the demand for HRC with thickness 1.2mm represents the uptrend to be the propellant that makes Japanese steel mills to hike their prices up. However, the up level will depend on the price offered by Chinese mills. On the other hand, Indian steel mills have reduced their low-price quotations to Middle East recently. Most of them have started to surge HRC prices by US$20~US$30/ton in domestic market and will not cut their export prices due to Rupee appreciation.
