Saudi Arabian hot rolled flat product exports surged almost six-fold on-year in June to 26,888 tonnes, according to new General Authority for Statistics data monitored by Kallanish.

This came as United Arab Emirates sourced 20,680t of unpickled HR wide strip under 3mm thick versus only 124t last year. Moreover, Spain sourced 3,966t of pickled HR wide strip above 4.75mm thick compared to zero last year.

Saudi cold rolled flats exports surged almost three-fold in August to 7,523t, thanks mainly to UAE taking in 3,270t of further worked CR sheet/plate versus 50t last year.

Coated flats exports, however, fell -39% to 5,796t as the US took in only 216t of hot-dip galvanized coil versus 3,528t in the year-before period.

January-June exports of HR flats thus doubled on-year to 202,747t. Unpickled HR wide strip under 3mm thick accounted for 111,686t, of which UAE sourced 111,676t, up 89%. Pickled HR wide strip above 4.75mm thick shipments totalled 40,523t versus zero last year, with Turkey (30,496t), India (6,061t) and Spain (3,966t) being the customers.

Six-month CR flats exports rose 76% to 38,908t. Further worked CR sheet/plate comprised 37,528t, with UAE and Bahrain increasing intake but Kuwait decreasing.

Six-month coated flats exports fell -21% to 37,697t. HDG comprised 22,107t, of which UAE sourced 9,719t, down -9%. US intake plummeted -81% to 1,755t, but Italian intake rose to 1,201t from 71t.