Ex-Iran billet prices have continued to rise, mostly supported by the ongoing uptrend in the global market. However, it has become more complicated for Iran-based billet suppliers to achieve their targeted prices due to the mismatch between offers and bids.
Accordingly, this week most offers of ex-Iran billet have been announced at $490-500/mt FOB, increasing by about $10-20/mt within the past week. A cargo of 30,000 mt of ex-Iran billet has been rumored as being sold, according to preliminary information, to China at $490/mt FOB, for delivery in December. However, the information has not been finally confirmed by the time of publication. This price level seems to be too high for Chinese importers, who have stopped importing lately and most bids have been not above $500/mt CFR from China.
“There are so many inquiries for Iranian billet. However, bids are a little bit lower than was expected,” one of the main exporters commented.
Buying activity has been better in Southeast Asia, but customers have not been ready to accept such a rapid increase so far. According to one Indonesia-based source, suppliers have rejected bids below $500/mt CFR. The offers from traders for Iranian billet bought earlier from mills are at around $510/mt CFR to Thailand and Indonesia.
Last week, a few cargoes of ex-Iran billet were sold at $480/mt FOB, according to SteelOrbis’ sources.