At least 70,000 mt of import billet have been sold to China over the past seven days, according to sources, indicating a continuous gradual increase compared to the previous levels. But a further rise is expected in the Chinese market owing to the continuing uptrend in the local market.
On Friday, March 26, steel mills in Tangshan have increase billet prices again - by RMB 60/mt ($9.2/mt) from Thursday to RMB 4,710/mt ($720/mt) ex-works, resulting in a total RMB 90/mt ($14/mt) rise since last Monday, following the previous hike by RMB 130/mt last weekend. The market has been facing lower supply as most mills in the area will need to cut production by at least 30 percent for the remainder of the year in order to lower emissions. The rise in billet prices has been smaller overall in China. The average billet price level in China has added RMB 28/mt ($4/mt) on Friday to RMB 4,673/mt ($715/mt) ex-warehouse. All local prices include 13 percent VAT.
Over the past week, two cargoes of ex-Vietnam billet were booked to China. The first one was for 30,000 mt of 3SP billet from an irregular supplier at $592/mt FOB, which is $617/mt on CFR basis to main China’s ports and $620-622/mt CFR with transportation to the Yangtze River area. This deal was done late last week, according to market sources.
Another contract for 20,000 mt billet from the main Vietnamese exporter has been concluded at $595/mt FOB this week, translating to $620/mt CFR main China ports and $623-625/mt CFR to the Yangtze River area, SteelOrbis has confirmed.
But on Friday suppliers from Southeast Asia have either withdrawn offers or have started to target $630/mt CFR at least, sources have said.
As regards non-ASEAN billet, which is subject to two percent import duty, the latest deal for Indian material has been confirmed at $605/mt CFR during the past week, while offers in the middle of this week were at $610/mt CFR and suppliers are going to target $615/mt CFR in the near future.
$1 = RMB 6.5376