Prices of ex-Asia billet have been rather stable this week since, despite the expected rebound in China ahead of the National Day holiday, prices in Asia have been rather stable and the market trend has been lacking clarity. As a result, Russian suppliers have decided to provide some discounts in order to sign deals in Taiwan, while no lower prices have been seen in rare deals for Asian origin billets in the Far East region.
A decent volume of ex-Russia Far East 3SP billet was sold to Taiwan at $440-443/mt CFR last week, while an additional tonnage of vanadium-added billet changed hands at $460/mt CFR. This means that the exporter provided $7-10/mt discounts on the initially offered $450/mt CFR seen in mid-September. Ex-Russia billet prices have been the most competitive in the Asian region recently, with the lowest ex-Iran 3SP offers at $450/mt CFR. Considering the very narrow geography of sales available to Russian exporters due to sanctions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Asia Russia can sell sizable volumes only to Taiwan and only small tonnages may go to the Philippines and Thailand.
At the same time, the latest trades for ex-China 3SP were done a week ago at $455/mt CFR to Indonesia, while this week the buyers’ price ideas are not above $450/mt CFR. “This week has been rather quiet approaching China’s holidays,” a Singapore-based trader said.
Also, after some sales for 150 mm 5SP billet done to the Philippines at $458-460/mt CFR, there have been no fresh negotiations.
The SteelOrbis reference price for import billet in Southeast Asia is stable compared to last week at $455-460/mt CFR, which reflects the latest trades for non-sanctioned materials.
The ex-China billet price on FOB basis is similar to early this week at $430-440/mt FOB, while ex-Indonesia billet offers have been at $445/mt FOB in the middle of this week, down by $2-3/mt from late last week.