Offer prices for ex-China and ex-ASEAN billet have officially been stable since late last week as sellers are not active in anticipation of stimulus measures from the Chinese Communist Party plenum in Beijing which started on Monday. However, the mood in the billet market in Asia has remained weak and traders’ position sales, for ASEAN origin billet as well, have continued.
The ex-China billet reference price stands at $470-480/mt FOB. “If we talk about official offers, the price is stable at $480/mt FOB, but the market is slow now with buyers waiting for lower prices,” a Chinese trader said. One mill said that the lowest possible price from a seller would be $465/mt FOB for 3SP 150 mm billet, but “there is no sense in offering this now, when futures are not falling.”
As reported earlier, traders have managed to sell sizable volumes of up to 300,000 mt of Chinese billets to different markets, mainly in short positions.
Ex-ASEAN billet offers have remained at $480-485/mt FOB and no new deals have been reported over the past week. However, one deal for 20,000 mt of ex-Vietnam 5SP billet has been heard at $490/mt CFR to Indonesia, similar to previous ex-China position sales in Southeast Asia at $489-491/mt CFR for 5SP. “These low prices are for position cargoes as traders still think that the market will move down further,” a source said.
