Ex-India billet prices have continued to go up gradually amid improved interest from buyers resulting in a rise in the number of trades concluded over the past week and government mills returning to the market with fresh offers, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Wednesday, June 14.
Having increased ex-India offer prices to the range of $510-530/mt FOB earlier in the month, sellers have been tending to maintain offers unchanged and have been holding back attempts to push up prices further, waiting for the improved demand to consolidate and for a stabilization of workable price levels.
The SteelOrbis reference price has increased by $5/mt on the lower end of the range and by $9/mt on the upper end over the past week to $505-519/mt FOB.
The improvement in demand by traders has prompted sellers led by government mills to increase export offers, with one state-run mill floating an export tender for 30,000 mt for which bidding will close next week.
An Odisha-based integrated private mill has concluded a spot booking for 30,000 mt of billets at $515/mt FOB and another tonnage was booked to an Asian trader at $505/mt FOB, sources said. A western region-located mill has confirmed a booking for end-of-July shipment of 25,000 mt to Kenya at $519/mt FOB, the sources said.
“There have been improvements in buying activity. More buyers are present and submitting bids. But gains in price have been limited up to now,” an official at an Indian mill said.
“Sellers are in a better mood as the market looks to have bottomed out. But they are still cautious about increasing offer levels. A consolidation of prices over one more week will see sellers becoming more aggressive in improving sales realization,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the local market, merchant billet prices have gained INR 300/mt ($4/mt) to INR 46,500/mt ($564/mt) ex-Mumbai and are up INR 200/mt ($2/mt) to INR 44,450/mt ($539/mt) ex- Raipur in the central region.
$1 = INR 82.40