Ex-India billet prices have remained nominally stable over the past week, but sellers have refrained from submitted offers, caught between the absence of interest in buying in most key destinations and the inability to adjust offers, with prices suffering setbacks in local markets too reacting to weak finished steel prices, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Wednesday, September 17.
Sources said that ex-India billet offers are unchanged at $430-440/mt FOB but most large mills have paused submitting official offers largely because of the absence of buyers across the Asian and Gulf regions.
According to the sources, sellers are now under twin bearish pressures, which have threatened to continue to stall deals in the short term. Firstly, buyers have been seeking sharp downward adjustments of offer levels for them even to be considered, but, on the other hand, billet prices have suffered a fresh round of setbacks in domestic trade.
“Pricing is a big challenge when overseas and local sales are both in sharp downward cycles. In the present context, most sellers of semis prefer to maintain competitiveness and push volumes in the local market while abstaining from submitting offers overseas,” an official at an Indian mill said.
“There is an inflow of aggressively priced ex-Iran and ex-Russian semis in key markets. This has completely eroded any expectations of a price rebound in the short term,” he added.
In the local market, the upturn in prices proved to be short-lived and they suffered a setback in tandem with finished long products. Billet trade prices have lost INR 700/mt ($8/mt) to INR 39,400/mt ($449/mt) ex-Mumbai and are down INR 950/mt ($11/mt) to INR 35,600/mt ($406/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region.
$1 = INR 87.76
