Offer prices for imported billets in Southeast Asia have posted an increase over the past week as ASEAN-based mills have voiced new higher offers, after closing December order books. Also, raw material price hikes, for scrap in particular, and expectations for restocking in late December and January have been among the main drivers. At the same time, demand has remained very poor and the only large-volumes deals done in the region have been for cheaper ex-Iran billets, SteelOrbis has learned from the market on December 1.
ASEAN-based mills have increased 3SP billet offers to $500-505/mt FOB for January shipment, while 5SP billet has been available at $505-510/mt FOB. All prices are around $10-15/mt above the levels seen in the previous deals from the mills to traders. “Offers are moving up in line with scrap. The mills are already starting to eye the restocking demand that generally comes in ahead of the Chinese New Year, which is at the end of January this year. So, everyone is trying to hike prices,” an international trader said.
Offers for customers in the Philippines for the most popular 5SP billet have been reported at $525-535/mt CFR at the lowest for January shipment, but “definitely there is no buyer willing to pay that,” a market source said. Another trader said that the highest possible level for 5SP from the buyers’ side would be $515/mt CFR Manila.
“I don't see those position offers [that were from Chinese traders earlier this month] now. It seems the long positions have been sold and traders are not confident in going short at the moment,” another source said.
No fresh bids have been reported for 3SP and market sources said that, with the current weak demand, “you can only guess - $500/mt or $505/mt CFR or lower,” a local source said.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported billet in Southeast Asia, which excludes ex-Iran prices, has been increased slightly from $505-520/mt CFR last week to $510-525/mt CFR now with the midpoint at $517.5/mt CFR.
The only deals for imported billet in Southeast Asia have been reported for ex-Iran materials. According to market sources, at least 30,000 mt of ex-Iran billet have been sold to Thailand at $485/mt CFR. Another lot of up to 40,000 mt of ex-Iran billet has been traded by a trader to Indonesia at $493/mt CFR, SteelOrbis has confirmed. Two weeks ago, it was hard to find offers for ex-Iran billet below $505/mt CFR Southeast Asia. “Though the price level in Indonesia is higher [than in Thailand], it is still the best price in the market,” a local source from Indonesia said, adding that offers coming from traders at $495/mt CFR Jakarta earlier this week have started to disappear. It is expected that, after a number of sales, suppliers will also hike ex-Iran billet offers, following other exporters.