The situation in China’s billet import market, which has been the focus of all major exporters recently, has worsened due to the fall of rebar and billet prices in the local market. As a result, the price idea of Chinese traders - buyers of import billet - has declined to not higher than $350/mt CFR, while even early this week the tradable value was at $350-360/mt CFR.
“Our local market is not providing support now. The billet price [domestically] dropped a lot over the past one week,” a Chinese trader said. The average billet price in the Chinese market has lost 2.8 percent or RMB 90/mt ($13/mt) over the past week to RMB 3,115/mt ($439/mt) ex-warehouse, including 13 percent VAT, according to SteelOrbis’ data.
“We received some offers at $360/mt CFR and below, but it does not seem attractive,” a China-based source has told SteelOrbis. The latest deals for ex-CIS and ex-India billet to China have been at $365-375/mt CFR.