The downtrend in Southeast Asia’s import billet market has continued this week even though official FOB-based prices from China have been relatively stable, while some traders have become more aggressive, believing that prices have still space to move down during December.
A deal for Chinese 5SP 150 mm billet from a Chinese trader has been rumored at $469/mt CFR, down from offers at $475/mt CFR a week ago. However, some market sources believe that bids are already below that level at $465/mt CFR for 5SP at best.
Nevertheless, offers for 130 mm billet in the Philippines have been higher - at $475/mt CFR for 3SP and $482/mt CFR for 5SP - as the number of offers for this size has been very limited.
At the same time, offers for 3SP 150 mm billet have been in a very wide range of $450-470/mt CFR to Indonesia and Thailand. “Some traders are offering short, but some offers are still high at $465-470/mt CFR,” one source in Thailand said. But bids have been dropping as rebar prices in Southeast Asia have been low. “The main problem is that local rebar is extremely weak here. Yesterday, IF rebar offers were at THB 16,300/mt ($468/mt) ex-works and THB 16,500/mt ($474/mt) delivered by stockists,” a source in Bangkok said, adding that billet should be below $450/mt CFR.
The SteelOrbis reference price for import billet in Southeast Asia (both 3SP and 5SP) has settled at $450-469/mt CFR, with the midpoint at $459.5/mt CFR, losing $9.5/mt over the past week.
