Indian billet export trade activity has taken a pause over the past week, while prices have continued to go up in comparison to the previous week. Nevertheless, expectations of mills’ achieving the $600/mt FOB mark seemed to have been deferred, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Wednesday, January 25.
Ex-India billet prices have reached $565-575/mt FOB, up by $15/mt from last week’s $550-560/mt FOB.
A government-run mill which held an export tender for 20,000 mt of billets during the past week reported receiving the highest bid of $570-575/mt FOB. There has been no information whether the mill accepted the bid and sold as the targeted price level was above $600/mt FOB.
However, no new export tenders have been floated by government mills, while a few private mills put limited offers for spot sales overseas, sources said.
An Odisha-based integrated mill has concluded a spot sale with an Asian buyer at $565/mt FOB, the sources added.
“We have not heard of any deal touching the $600/mt FOB mark as largely expected by the mills for the past few days. But current realizations are attractive for local sellers,” a source at Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) said.
“Indian mills have paused aggressive export sales to meet the rapid rise in demand in the local market, as rebar stocks are moving very fast,” he said.
But another official at a private mill maintained that, if the correction which re-surfaced in the local billet market gained momentum over the next few weeks, producers would again increase volumes in overseas sales. Local billet prices have edged down INR 400/mt ($5/mt) to INR 51,300/mt ($628/mt) ex-Mumbai and are down INR 700/mt ($9/mt) to INR 47,500/mt ($581/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region.
$1 = INR 81.70