100 x 100 mm to 150 x 150 mm billet from the CIS (which holds the largest share in the Iranian import billet market) are being offered by suppliers at $470-480/mt CFR northern Iranian Caspian sea ports - up from $450-470/mt the week before and from $350-370/mt at the end of October 2008.
Chinese origin billet, which stands in a range of around $600-620/mt FOB China main ports, is not able to compete and so naturally has no role in the current billet market in Iran (for the CFR price a sea-freight charge of at least $50/mt needs to be added).
Indian suppliers are offering better prices for billet at about $500-530/mt CFR Iranian ports. However, this range is still higher than the prices of the CIS suppliers and so is not very attractive to Iranian customers.
Local private sector suppliers of billet in Iran, more of whom are gradually coming on stream, are offering billet at $500-525/mt ex-works for immediate or reasonably quick delivery - a price range which is more workable for local customers in comparison with prices of Chinese or Indian material. Local suppliers of billet which had a delivery period of at least one to two months a few months back are now supplying from ready stock if they can find any serious customer. The existing stagnation has also has resulted in high inventories at the Iranian ports, with warehouses full of imported billet while local rolling mills have not recovered yet. Local rolling mills are suffering heavy losses due to their high-priced billet purchases a few months ago.
Billet holds the No. 1 position in Iran's import market for steel products. Billet imports play a critical role given the high demand and the low local supply. In the last Iranian year Iran imported about 4.2 million mt of semi-finished steel, mainly consisting of billet, while the country's overall steel imports amounted to about 11 million mt for the period in question.