Offers for ex-ASEAN billet have increased again since late last week as mills have managed to sell most of February shipment allocation. Unlike last month, recently billet sales from ASEAN mills have been more active than slabs, for which prices are too high.
Ex-Indonesia 3SP billet offers for March shipment have been at $545/mt FOB since Friday, up by $10-15/mt week on week. “They increased offers, but they do not expect to transact at that price. They are quite well sold at the moment,” a Singapore-based trader said. The latest deals from Dexin Steel have been at $529-535/mt FOB, only a few dollars above $527-533/mt FOB reported last week. The Latin American market has been one of the active ones recently, while the highest price level has been fixed in deals to Africa, at $532-535/mt FOB. Meanwhile, a deal for Indonesian billet has also been rumoured at $530/mt FOB to Turkey, which, however, has not been confirmed by the time of publication. In Asia, a few deals were concluded to South Korea. Market sources believe that in total the Indonesian mill has traded over 150,000 mt of billets over the past ten days.
Also, though the number of billet offers from Malaysia is still limited, one deal for 30,000 mt of February shipment billet has been done at $530/mt FOB, with the final buyer being a Turkish mill and the price translated to near $565/mt CFR. “Malaysian origin billets can be used in Turkey for use inside Turkey [as it is duty free]. So, the price is quite attractive,” a European trader said.
Ex-China 3SP 150 mm billet has been at $525-530/mt FOB, the same as late last week.
In Southeast Asia’s import billet market, last week 40,000 mt of ex-Iran billet were traded to Indonesia at $520/mt CFR, versus the previous reference price of $520-525/mt CFR. The non-sanctioned reference price has remained at $538-542/mt CFR even as traders try to push offers for 5SP BF billets to $560/mt CFR Manila.
At the same time, official slab offers from Indonesia and Malaysia are $620/mt FOB, with the possibility of obtaining $600-610/mt FOB in firm negotiations. The targeted market is Europe and the offers translate to around $670/mt CFR Italy, the same as ex-China slab prices for plate production.