After the increase in import billet prices in Southeast Asia seen last week, only some buyers have accepted the new price levels, while most importers purchased enough material earlier in June at lower prices.
Around 10,000-20,000 mt of 3SP Chinese billet were traded to Thailand at $440/mt CFR early this week, which is in line with the offers seen since last week, but up by $5-10/mt from the previous deals for this grade seen in Southeast Asia in the first half of June.
In the Philippines, most offers for 5SP billet have been at $450/mt CFR, almost stable from last week. But “it is really quiet so far. The price increased, but the main thing is that buyers are not in need,” an international trader said. Two weeks ago, buyers in the Philippines bought Chinese and Russian 5SP billet at $435-440/mt CFR.
The SteelOrbis reference price for import billet in Southeast Asia is at $440-450/mt CFR, up by $5/mt over the past week.
Official billet offers on FOB basis from China and Indonesia are stable at $425/mt FOB and $430/mt FOB, respectively. Trading has been very slow and, even though the Indonesian mill has started to offer for October shipment, this does not mean that there were active sales of billets earlier. “They did not sell billets, but they are switching to make slabs for HRC, which are selling at better prices,” an Asian source said.