Steel HRC · Origin deep dive

Exports load at Zhangjiagang, Tangshan's Jingtang, Rizhao and other coastal mill berths across eastern China.

Commodity-grade SS400/Q235-equivalent coil in standard gauges, the price-setting spec for seaborne commercial HRC.

Handysize and Supramax steel parcels to Asia, the Middle East and Latin America; export licensing and VAT-rebate rules gate flow.

Vietnamese re-rollers and pipe makers, Middle East service centers, and Latin American distributors take the marginal Chinese tonne.

Exports surge when domestic property-driven demand disappoints, typically swelling after weak spring seasons and into year-end.

Chinese crude-steel output caps, export tax-rebate changes, and proliferating anti-dumping cases against Chinese coil move the FOB floor.

Priced ex-works Indiana basis off integrated and EAF mills at Burns Harbor, Gary, and Steel Dynamics and Nucor sheet plants.

Standard A1011 commercial-steel coil, with the CRU Midwest print settling the dominant CME HRC futures contract.

Domestic rail, barge and truck distribution; Section 232 tariffs keep import competition structurally at bay.

Steel service centers, automotive and appliance supply chains, and pipe-tube producers buy on CRU-linked contracts.

Demand firms with spring construction and automotive builds, while mill maintenance outages cluster in autumn negotiating season.

Section 232 tariff policy shifts, new EAF sheet capacity additions, scrap-price swings and service-center inventory cycles drive the premium.

Ex-works Ruhr basis with mills at Duisburg, IJmuiden and Ghent, importing via Antwerp and Italian ports.

S235-S355 structural and DD11-type forming grades under EN standards, increasingly sold with low-carbon-emissions certificates.

Rhine barge and rail distribution inland; low Rhine water levels periodically inflate delivered costs from coastal mills.

Automotive OEMs, construction fabricators and service centers, with safeguard-quota administration shaping import buying windows.

Buying pauses around August shutdowns and December, with quota resets at quarter-ends triggering import surges.

CBAM implementation costs, energy prices, safeguard-quota tightening and thyssenkrupp-ArcelorMittal capacity decisions drive European premia.

Coil exports load at Iskenderun and Marmara-region berths from Tosyalı, Çolakoğlu, Erdemir and other EAF-heavy producers.

Commercial-grade coil off scrap-fed EAFs, spec-comparable to commodity imports and priced off the scrap-metal spread.

Short Handysize legs into the EU and Mediterranean; deep-sea scrap arrivals from the US and Baltic feed the mills inbound.

EU re-rollers and service centers within safeguard quotas, plus Middle East and North African distributors.

Follows Mediterranean construction and Ramadan slowdowns, with EU quota-period timing shaping export bursts.

Imported-scrap price swings, lira and energy-cost volatility, EU safeguard and CBAM treatment of Turkish coil set competitiveness.

JSW, Tata, AMNS and SAIL ship coil through Mundra, Hazira, Paradip and Vizag from integrated coastal works.

IS 2062-equivalent commercial coil from modern integrated mills, quality-competitive with Chinese material at similar discounts.

Coastal mega-mills enjoy short port hauls; exports swing between EU quota windows and price-led Asian sales.

EU buyers within country quotas, Vietnamese and Middle Eastern re-rollers, and Nepal-Bangladesh overland trade.

Monsoon quarter dampens domestic construction demand, traditionally pushing Indian mills to export more July-September.

India's own safeguard duties flipping trade flows, domestic demand strength absorbing tonnage, and EU quota exhaustion move the differential.