There are signs of increasing import billet prices in Southeast Asia after the Chinese New Year holiday, but since the number of offers is still limited and some traders are still assessing the actual support for price increases a clear trend has not been formed yet.
Offers for 5SP billet of Asian origins to the Philippines have been reported at $460-470/mt CFR, compared to sporadic sales done at $455/mt CFR early in February. Some buyers claim they had offers at $460/mt CFR in the middle of this week, even though this level is already considered to be rather low by a number of sellers. Some traders have hiked offers to $465-470/mt CFR for the Philippines, but most importers said that the number of offers has been very limited since Wednesday as even optimistic sellers are not sure of the trend, at least for now. “There are attempts to raise prices, but there are not many offers. I won’t say zero offers, but visibly fewer… Russia could achieve $455/mt CFR last week. But, with the strong yuan, the Chinese will all target above $460/mt CFR now,” a Manila-based source said.
A similar situation has been seen in other Southeast Asian countries with some buyers in Thailand and Indonesia saying they still can get $460/mt CFR for 3SP from China, while some agree that firm offers have already increased to $465-470/mt CFR. But the main focus is still on alternative cheaper billet options from sanctioned sellers. There has been a rumor about a sale of 30,000 mt of 150 mm 3SP billet at $450/mt CFR or below for May shipment to Thailand, and, though there has been no confirmation about the origin, most market sources agree that this is most probably from Russia or Iran. “I am not hearing many Iranian offers in the market, but for Russia this tonnage and price is very logical,” an Asian trader said. There have been price ideas for ex-Russia billet in Taiwan at $450-455/mt CFR. In early February, the lowest level for sanctioned Russian billet in Southeast Asia was at $440-445/mt CFR.
The SteelOrbis reference price for import billet in Southeast Asia has been at $460-465/mt CFR this week, as it includes only non-sanctioned billet indications, moving up by $5-8/mt compared to early February.
