Ex-India billet prices have been kept stable over the past week, but only notionally since most large mills have exited the export market amid the mounting negative mood in most key destinations and with sellers having virtually no “economically viable option” to leverage pricing and compete overseas, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Wednesday, June 11.
Ex-India billet prices are still in the range of $415-425/mt FOB, but most sellers have had no expectations of successful deals at a time when the tradable level is hardly above $410-415/mt FOB.
Market sources said that the market has yet to fully react to the recent move by the Trump administration to double tariffs on steel to 50 percent, and, although prices in the semis segment have already fallen a lot, no market participant is confident that prices have reached a bottom in the current cycle.
At the same time, Indian mills have no need to adjust prices and push sales in aggressive deals, the sources added, due to high competition with China.
Meanwhile, in the domestic market, the mood and trade conditions have worsened further with prices of semis suffering major setbacks in reaction to falling demand and prices of long products. With secondary mills lowering merchant offtake of semis, billet trade prices have slumped INR 1,500/mt ($18/mt) to INR 39,900/mt ($467/mt) ex-Mumbai and have lost INR 550/mt ($6/mt) to INR 38,350/mt ($449/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region.
$1 = INR 85.44
