Despite not very high demand for imported billet in Southeast Asia, offer prices from major suppliers have been heard at a higher level since, with the current strong performance of raw material quotations (both scrap and iron ore), exporters are still bullish.
The latest bookings for ex-Russia billet were done at $605-610/mt CFR to the Philippines last week after a sale at $600/mt CFR, SteelOrbis has learned. Customers have been resisting price increases, but they have had no other choice but to accept some increase as there have been no lower offers for the preferred 120-130 mm billet in the market. Before the New Year holidays, the tradable value in the Southeast Asian market was at $595-600/mt CFR.
Fresh offers for ex-Russia billet have been reported at $615/mt CFR and above, sources have said. The major Vietnamese BF producers have been asking for $600-605/mt FOB, which corresponds to about $610-615/mt CFR Manila.
Though the sentiment in the Chinese rebar and billet market has been weaker this week, this has had only a small impact on the situation in the Southeast Asian market recently, according to sources, as China has been not importing billets lately due to its lower local prices.