Sentiments in the Asian billet market have been rather positive owing to the gradual improvement seen in the local market in China. However, despite this, most export prices for billet from Asia have been stable and demand has been very limited in both regional and distant sales destinations, which has been the major restraining factor lately.
Ex-China billet prices have been reported at $610-640/mt FOB this week, up by $10/mt from late last week. According to market sources, those traders who took positions earlier, could provide offers at the lower end of the range, which, however, do not attract demand.
The major Indonesian mill has still been asking for $620-630/mt FOB depending on the grade. Similar prices could be found from Malaysia, according to sources.
Even though there have been some reports that Chinese traders have taken positions for ex-China and ex-ASEAN billets over the past few weeks at above $600/mt FOB, most of these materials have not yet been resold to end-users, which has resulted in a relatively high number of offers for ex-Asia billets in the global market.
At the same time, the leading Indian mill has closed a tender for 30,000 mt of 150 mm billet at $605/mt FOB for April shipment to a trader. Market sources believe that this material will be offered to Turkey at around $655/mt CFR or so. Taking into account that last week one customer from Turkey accepted this CFR level in a deal for ex-MENA billet also for April shipment, the price has been called by market sources as competitive, given the lead time.
At the same time, ex-Malaysia and ex-China billet have been offered by traders to Turkey at $660-670/mt CFR without any visible success, while at least one deal was rumored has having been closed at around $670/mt CFR for duty-free Malaysian material in the previous round. “But it doesn’t work. People have overestimated the demand in Turkey,” a trader commented.
In Southeast Asia’s import market, Asian billet has also been unattractive. While offers for ex-Malaysia 130 mm 5SP billet have been at $645/mt CFR, most bids have been at $620-625/mt CFR. “The maximum is $630/mt CFR Manila, if any buyer is super desperate (which I don't think anyone is),” a source from Singapore said. The SteelOrbis reference price for imported billet in Southeast Asia has remained at $625-630/mt CFR.
The average local billet price in China has added RMB 97/mt ($14/mt) over the past week and RMB 12/mt ($2/mt) from the previous day to RMB 4,150/mt ex-warehouse. This price translates to $533/mt, excluding 13 percent VAT. As a result, import billet price in China has increased by SteelOrbis by $10-15/mt over the past week to $525-530/mt CFR.
$1 = RMB 6.8949