Ex-India billet trade activity has showed signs of a definite revival led by local government-run mills and, though the pace of the uptrend of price levels was below the expectations of sellers, buyers were slightly more aggressive in concluding deals, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Wednesday, January 4.
Government-run mills returned to the market with higher-volume offers both for tender and spot-based sales with market participants assessing that over 70,000 mt of concast billet have been offered by such mills for overseas sales recently.
The reference price for ex-India billet has settled in the range of $510-520/mt FOB, up from the previous week’s levels of $485-505/mt FOB. Though this is still lower than the levels expected by producers at $530-540/mt FOB, the resurgence of buying interest has been taken as a positive.
A government-run mill which floated an export tender for 30,000 mt to close later this week also concluded a trade for 15,000 mt on spot basis at $510/mt FOB for the Gulf market.
Another government mill reported a trade at $520/mt FOB and, while neither the tonnage nor destination could be confirmed, some in trade circles speculated Turkey as the destination.
An Odisha-based integrated mill reported a sale contract with an agency in Hong Kong for 30,000 mt at around $510/mt FOB or slightly above, the sources said.
“Buying activity has revived, but prices not so much. The biggest drag on the price line is absence of large buyers from China,” an official at a private mill said.
“Though the mood is upbeat, it is still very fragile and even a minor gain needs to be sustained over a few weeks for the market to rebound firmly. For now, we are still cautious,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the local market, the uptrend in billet trade prices has gained further momentum fueled by the surge in rebar prices and the high trade volume as secondary mills increased merchant bookings. Trade circles said that billet prices shot up INR 2,500/mt ($30/mt) to INR 50,500/mt ($609/mt) ex-Mumbai and are up INR 1,050/mt ($13/mt) to INR 47,500/mt ($573/mt) ex-Raipur in central region.
$1 = INR 82.90
