Ex-India billet prices have improved and, though still below sellers’ expectations, buyers, mostly in Asian destinations, have been showing resistance, leading to low activity and some offers failing to elicit bids, SteelOrbis has learned from trade and industry circles.
Ex-India billet reference prices have reached $500-515/mt FOB, with the midpoint at $507.5/mt FOB, up by $17.5/mt over the past week. But some offers submitted by private mills at the higher end of the range could not be converted into deals.
Some market sources said that a government mill which held export tenders for two lots of 30,000 mt each received an average highest bid of around $512/mt FOB, higher than the sub-$500/mt FOB expectation of the seller and trade circles. However, some market sources claimed that the tenders were cancelled and that the abovementioned prices are mills’ targets, with real bids lower.
Another western India-based mills reported a deal with a Singapore trader for an onward sale at $510/mt FOB, the sources said.
Despite this, the sources said that an Odisha-based private mill is reported to have submitted an offer for 30,000 mt, but this was pulled back give the wide bid-offer disparity.
“The improvement in prices is a positive after prolonged weak market conditions. But for key destinations to break out and consolidate at higher levels buyers will need to turn more active, because we do not think mills will cut prices aggressively as earlier to push sales overseas,” an Indian mill said.
“The current trend will, however, ensure more local mills will increase export offers in terms of volumes at a time when local merchant sales are slowing,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the local market, billet prices have reversed their falling trend to record gains, albeit on very low volumes, during the festival week. Merchant trade billet prices are up INR 500/mt ($6/mt) to INR 43,500/mt ($522/mt) ex-Mumbai and up INR 350/mt ($4/mt) to INR 41,250/mt ($495/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region.