Ex-India billet offers from mills have been largely kept stable over the past week, but limited trades have been reported at discounts and bids in major destinations have fallen. Despite this, sellers are mildly optimistic over achieving better realizations in the immediate future, SteelOrbis learned.
Ex-India billet offers have been kept stable at $520-530/mt FOB by private sellers, while at least one government mill reportedly concluded modest-volume spot trades with buyers in the Gulf at prices of $490/mt FOB and $500/mt FOB respectively.
Though not confirmed by the seller, speculation in trade circles indicated that an Odisha-based mill submitted an offer at $520/mt FOB but pulled out of a deal on receiving a bid at $500/mt FOB and this is taken to be an indication that sellers are holding out for better expected realizations in the short term. However, a number of market sources said that this bid at $500/mt FOB has already been assessed as being on the higher side, taking into account that it is hard to find buyers at above $480/mt FOB.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-India billet has been lowered to $480-500/mt FOB, versus $490-520/mt FOB earlier.
“Sales at a slight discount in the past week are not a cause of concern as they may be because of inventory reasons. Most private mills are pulling out of discounted bids and are awaiting improved sentiments to translate into a higher workable price line,” an official at a private mill said.
However, the modest optimism on the export front has been tempered by the reversal of the uptrend in the local merchant billet market. At least two officials at government mills said that sharp fall in local billet prices could negate small gains in overseas markets and that the situation is currently on a “knife-edge” and could go in either direction.
Local trade billet prices are down INR 500/mt ($6/mt) to INR 50,200/mt ($610/mt) ex-Mumbai and to INR 48,800/mt ($593/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region.
$1 = INR 82.30
