Ex-India billet prices have been kept stable over the past week, but trade activity has showed signs of improvements with more sellers active in the market amid the slowdown in movement of semis in the local market, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Wednesday, April 29.
Sources said that ex-India billet offer prices are stable in the range of $480-490/mt FOB. But the positive is that both buyers and sellers have been moderating their expectations, thereby bridging the earlier wide bid-offer gap.
Although most deals have been done at the lower end of the offer range, buyers have been improving their bids from the previous lows of $460-470/mt FOB, which had been unworkable in previous weeks.
For example, an eastern India-based large integrated mill has offered 20,000 mt to a regular buyer at $485/mt FOB, the sources said.
Similarly, another Odisha-based large mill is heard to have sold 30,000 mt of billet to an undisclosed buyer at $480/mt FOB, meaning that on average the reference price has remained stable over the past week, moving from $470-490/mt FOB last week to $480/mt FOB this week.
Enquiries have also been coming in from the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) markets, with negotiations currently ongoing and with deals expected to be closed towards the end of the current week, offering some buoyancy to sentiments, the sources said.
It may be noted that state-run steel producer Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) currently has two ‘live’ billet export tenders aggregating 90,000 mt, due to close later this week, with trade circles claiming that bids received for these volumes would set the price trend and the mood of exporters.
Meanwhile, in the local market billet trade prices have remained stable, but trade volumes are seen to be declining as secondary mills have been reducing offtake of semis as the rate of conversion has also been reduced in the wake of rising inventories of finished steel. Billet trade prices are unchanged at INR 45,000/mt ($476/mt) ex-Mumbai and also stable at INR 41,750/mt ($442/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region.
