Ex-India billet prices have been kept stable in the past week, with buyers and sellers not submitting bids or offers with the market falling completely silent for the year-end holidays and market participants waiting for a new trend to emerge once business activity resumes, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Thursday, January 2.
Ex-India billet offer prices from large mills have been kept unchanged at $480-490/mt FOB with almost three months since any of the large government-run mills has floated an export offer or export tender, while private sector mills have also kept away from overseas sales.
Sources said that local mills have been under relatively less pressure to sell overseas against the backdrop of continued gains in local trade prices and so they have preferred to hold back export offers until a more definitive trend emerges in key destinations.
The reference price for Indian billet has been stable at $460/mt FOB, in the middle between offers and previous bids.
“We will wait to assess the impact of the economic stimulus on finished steel prices in China, which will determine trade trends in semis. In the local market, long products are performing well, prompting secondary mills to increase off-take of semis, which is providing support for prices of semis sold by integrated mills,” a source said.
“While we can get more clarity on conditions only after business activity gains momentum in a few days more, our assessment is that local mills will continue to focus on domestic sales as workable export realisations will remain under pressure,” the source said.
Meanwhile, rising volumes of billet traded in the local market have supported prices, which are up INR 200/mt ($2/mt) to INR 42,900/mt ($502/mt) ex-Mumbai and up INR 450/mt ($5/mt) to INR 39,650/mt ($464/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region.
$1 = INR 85.50