Offer prices for billet in Southeast Asia have increased slightly this week, but customers have so far not been ready to accept a further hike, and so trading activity has been subdued. The positions of suppliers are quite strong as they have mostly sold out for January shipment.
Offers from most major suppliers, from Russia, Malaysia, Vietnam and other countries, have been at $440/mt CFR this week. The previous deal for ex-Russia billet was signed at $435/mt CFR Manila and customers have been reluctant to accept a further increase so far, a number of sources said. Some reports in the market indicate that ex-India billet has been available at $435/mt CFR Manila this week, and some tonnages of ex-Vietnam induction furnace billet have been sold to the Philippines at $435-438/mt CFR, but traders said that it is hard to find such prices at the moment. “Even I think that $440/mt CFR should be a tradable level now,” an Asian trader said. “Offers are there [at $440/mt CFR] for sure, but not deals,” another source told SteelOrbis.
Customers in Indonesia and Thailand have also been reluctant to accept a further price increase following deals at $430-433/mt CFR reported last week. “There are attempts to increase rebar prices, but it is difficult,” one of the re-rollers from Indonesia said, adding that his price idea for import billet is $425-430/mt CFR. Nevertheless, there has been a report that a buyer from Thailand has purchased ex-Malaysia billet at $440/mt CFR, but this has not been confirmed by SteelOrbis by the time of publication.
Offers from Iran have been heard at $425-430/mt CFR Southeast Asia for February shipment, similar to last week’s level, but there have been no reports of new deals.
SteelOrbis’ Southeast Asia billet reference prices, which exclude offers from Iran, have settled at $440/mt CFR, against $430-440/mt CFR last week.