Offers for ex-ASEAN billet have as expected increased slightly, reacting to some improvement in steel futures prices in China and further sizable sales at previous levels last week. As a result, only billet for late March shipment is still available.
New offers for 3SP billet from the main Indonesian mill are at $535/mt FOB, increasing by $5/mt from last week. Last week, 60,000 mt of billets were traded by this mill for March shipment at $530/mt FOB, which is in line with the previous sales mainly done at $528-532/mt FOB and one exceptional sale at slightly above $535/mt FOB. “I believe these volumes are booked by traders for the Asian market, like the Philippines, and will be sold out [to end users] after the holidays,” a trader said. Official offers for ex-Indonesia slabs have been at $610/mt FOB, stable from the previous level.
Offers from Malaysia are scarce and mills have focused on slabs offers. One trader has a position cargo bought earlier from the Malaysian producer: it is offered at $575/mt CFR to Turkey. The latest sales for up to 100,000 mt of slabs from the leading mill in Malaysia were done at near $580-585/mt FOB to Turkey, while for Europe the price is $610/mt FOB and higher.
The ex-China billet reference price is at $535-540/mt FOB, stable from late last week after an increase by $10/mt. “ASEAN billet [price] is dependent on Chinese futures. They went up last week, so $535-540/mt FOB from Dexin was quite expected,” a Singapore-based trader said. However, today, January 30, rebar futures at Shanghai Futures Exchange have lost 1.51 percent after two days of stability as demand has been slowing down ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays.
In Southeast Asia’s import billet market, market sources are waiting for a further price increase. With the latest deals done on FOB basis, the CFR price in the Philippines should not be below $550-555/mt, up from last week’s reference prices of $540-542/mt CFR Manila. “But honestly there is little interest now. I think most buying will slow by the end of the week,” another trader said. Also, offers for 150 mm Indian billet to Manila have been at $560/mt CFR.
Russian suppliers have also increased offers, to $535/mt CFR Taiwan for commercial billet, up from $520-525/mt CFR in deals around two weeks back. But “I think they can agree at $525-530/mt CFR now,” a local source said.