Ex-Asia billet offers have continued to gradually move down early this week as weak demand in China puts pressure on major exporters, even though production cuts are expected soon in China. Chinese traders have become more eager to sell overseas and some improvement in trading is awaited.
The ex-China billet reference price is at $435-445/mt FOB today, moving down by $5/mt from late last week and by $10-15/mt over the past week. “Today offers are at $440-445/mt FOB, but it is possible to book lower, having firm bids,” a China-based source said. “Local inventories are still climbing and demand is sluggish. Billet exports may increase to help with the pressure on debar from weak demand,” another Chinese trader noted, adding that prices of raw materials like iron ore have also been softening slowly and, though sellers have voiced a seventh round of local coke price increases, a number of mills are resisting the latest hike. There has been talk about some bookings at $435-440/mt FOB, which, however, have remained unconfirmed by the time of publication.
The major Indonesian mill has followed and cut its official billet offer by $5/mt from late last week to $450/mt FOB for November shipment. Its slab offers have settled even lower - at $445/mt FOB. But most ASEAN mills still have little interest in cut semis prices too fast as their focus is still on sales of finished steel, i.e., HRC and rebar.
Asian billet offers for Southeast Asian importers have been corrected slightly, by up to $5/mt from late last week, but “I don’t see deals. $460/mt for 5SP should be reasonable for 5SP today,” a Singapore-based trader said. Last week, deals for Vietnamese 5SP IF billets and Chinese BOF 5SP billets were signed at $465/mt CFR in the Philippines and Indonesia.
In Turkey, ex-China billet offers have eased to $475-478/mt CFR, versus $480-485/mt CFR last week.
