The mood in the Southeast and East Asian billet market has been mainly negative with most customers waiting for discounts. Though some sources have been discussing relatively high billet prices to Taiwan, they have been for high-vanadium billet, for which prices usually have extras compared to base billets, market sources told SteelOrbis.
A contract for a small volume of ex-Japan vanadium-added billet has been reported at $590/mt CFR Taiwan. This price includes at least $10/mt of extras, according to market sources. Also, an offer for Russian vanadium-added billets to Taiwan has been heard at $585/mt CFR. The price is assessed as too high and is explained by the different quality.
At the same time, for the base billet grades, prices in Taiwan and Southeast Asia have been slightly lower compared to the previous week, according to sources. In particular, 10,000 mt of ex-Indonesia 3SP billet has been offered to Taiwan at $565-570/mt CFR. Russian base grade offers could be found at $560/mt CFR, sources said.
Also, as a good example of the still weak market conditions is the latest deal heard to the Philippines, at $580/mt CFR for ex-Indonesia 5SP billet. The same supplier was increasing offers to $600/mt CFR Manila last week, but as there was no response from buyers the seller decided to cut prices again to sign a deal.
Also, offers for ex-Iran billet to Thailand have been lowered from $580-585/mt CFR last week to $570/mt CFR for August-September shipment.