Offers prices for imported billet in Southeast Asia have hit and exceeded $400/mt CFR this week, following China’s purchases at a higher price level. But buyers in Southeast Asia have been mostly reluctant to accept such a sharp hike.
Prices for ex-CIS, ex-India and ex-S. Korea billet to the Philippines have been heard at $400-410/mt CFR, which is $5-10/mt above last week’s level. Some sellers have been offering even above $410/mt CFR, sources have said. “There is not much appetite to buy billets right now,” a Manila-based source said. In the second half of last week, a small tonnage of 6,000 mt of Japanese billet was sold at $399/mt CFR to the Philippines.
The latest sales of ex-CIS billet to the Philippines were concluded at $390/mt CFR. But this level is not available in the market anymore and offers from CIS suppliers have mostly been at $400-405/mt CFR. A contract for ex-CIS billet to East Asia was signed at $395/mt CFR recently.
There have been rumours in the market about an ex-India sale of billet to Indonesia at $390-400/mt CFR, but this information has not been confirmed by the time of publication. Some sources have said that such a higher deal price level is connected with the uncommon quality of the billets. But some market participants have commented that the Indonesian import billet market is “almost dead”, and so the deal can only be for a small quantity.
In total, 30,000 mt of ex-Iran billet have been traded to Thailand at $383/mt CFR over the past week, while the previous deal price was at $378/mt CFR, as SteelOrbis reported last week.
The SteelOrbis weekly reference price for billet in Southeast Asia has increased by $10/mt to $395-400/mt CFR.