A bearish trend has set into the Indian billet export market with buyers across major destinations pulling out from making trades and local sellers also making moderate adjustments to offer levels, SteelOrbis has learned from trade and industry circles.
Ex-India billet prices are at $730-750/mt FOB, down by $20/mt over the past week, but they have still failed to attract much demand across the Asian and Middle Eastern regions. The tradable level is closer to the lower end of the range, according to sources.
According to sources, Indian government mills, which were the most aggressive sellers of semis in overseas markets until last month, have generally held back export volumes, while private mills had in any case reduced merchant sales of semis, having optimized output of captive rolling mills, and hence limited their compulsions to push semis overseas.
“Buyers are unwilling to commit at any price level as the short-term direction of the market is unclear. Hence, sellers too are adjusting prices to push sales. Discount sales are off the table as local sales and captive conversion remain robust,” an official at an Odisha-based private mill said.
“Pessimism in export destinations is offset by strong local demand. Pricing sentiments have been impacted largely by sporadic cheap offers of ex-Russia billets. But we do not think bearish sentiments will be prolonged as such supplies cannot reach the deficit regions of the MENA and the EU. Indian exporters can well afford to take a pause from the international markets until prices rebound,” the official said.
An offer for ex-India billet given by a trader to the Gulf has been reported at around $800/mt CFR. At the same time, buyers in Southeast Asia have also been assessing the tradable level at $800-810/mt CFR, which translates to about $730-735/mt FOB, taking into account some margin for traders.
