Sentiments among Indian billet exporters have remained bearish during the past week, but the easing of the decline in prices and some improvements in the local market were taken to be positives, SteelOrbis has learned from trade and industry circles.
Sources said that, while weakness has persisted in most Asian destination markets, ex-India billet prices have been at $480-510/mt FOB, with the upper end of the range sliding by $10/mt over the past week.
There has been a billet tender from a major state-run mill, in which the seller expected a bid of $510/mt FOB, sources said. However, there have been no confirmed reports that the tender has been closed, taking into account that this level is too high for the Asia market, where the reference price is at $530-540/mt CFR, while China could pay only $500-510/mt CFR.
The sources said that there is optimism that the slight reversal of declining prices seen in China earlier this week will spread to the Asian region.
“We are not sure if the worst is over in Asia or if prices will go down again. This is difficult to forecast. But we are hoping that, even if price realizations in Asia and Gulf do not rise, they will not go below current levels,” an official at a private eastern India-based integrated mill said.
There has also been information in the market about a deal for 20,000 mt prime concast billet with a Gulf-based buyer at $500/mt FOB for end-of-September shipment, which, however, could not be confirmed by the time of publication.
However, another official at a private mill said that they were not rushing to increase export allocations of semis in the current quarter as local sales prices were strengthening and margins were higher compared to overseas sales.
Sources said that local billet sales prices have gained an average INR 800/mt ($10/mt) to INR 50,600/mt ($641/mt) ex-Mumbai and to INR 51,200/mt ($649/mt) ex-Raipur in the central regional market.
$1 = INR 78.90