The local Chinese billet market opened with another decline today, Monday, June 21, due to the sharp drop in futures prices, weak demand for billet and rebar in the country and the fall in iron ore prices. As a result, tradable prices for import billet in China have gone down again, much below the level in Southeast Asia and in other regions, SteelOrbis has learned.
Steel mills in Tangshan have cut their billet prices today to RMB 4,850/mt ($751/mt) ex-works, down by RMB 50/mt ($8/mt) compared to Sunday and down RMB 90/mt ($14/mt) from the level seen in the middle of last week. This means that excluding 13 percent VAT the tradable value has come down to $665/mt.
No firm bids for import billet from China have been reported so far as most customers are staying away from the market in such volatile conditions. The tradable price level is hardly above $650-660/mt CFR China at the moment, traders have stated.
The latest offers from most Southeast Asian suppliers to China have been at $695-710/mt CFR and higher. With the gap between offers and the tradable level too large, negotiations have been on pause. “The iron ore price has fallen again, so China is unlikely to support the billet market any time soon,” a trading source said.
$1 = RMB 6.4546