Prices for imported billet in East Asia have posted strong increases over the past two weeks as cheaper offers have been disappearing from the market and ex-ASEAN sellers have been very aggressive. At the same time, the Chinese market has been halted with any resumption of billet imports possible only in the case of very sharp increases (by over $50/mt) after the Chinese New Year holiday.
After long negotiations, at least 20,000 mt of billet from Russia’ Far East region (or more) were sold to Taiwan at $585/mt CFR by the end of last week. Market sources said that the material probably contains higher vanadium content, and so the price is around $15/mt above the base billet reference price. Nevertheless, this signals a strong increase compared to the previous levels, as before leaving for the holidays Russian offers to Taiwan were at $550/mt CFR (for vanadium-added material).
Buying from Russia was reasonable for Taiwanese buyers as cheaper offers for ex-Iran billets have dried up and ex-ASEAN offers have been increasing too rapidly. A trader who took an ex-Indonesia billet position earlier offered to Taiwan at $600/mt CFR. New offers from Russia for April shipment billets are at $590/mt CFR.
Being successful in deals over the past few weeks, an ex-Indonesia mill has voiced an official offer for wire rod grade billet at as high as $620/mt FOB, up from the deal for this grade at $590-600/mt FOB last week.
The average domestic billet price in China has been at RMB 3,913/mt ex-warehouse, up by just RMB 13/mt over the past week. The dollar equivalent of this price, excluding 13 percent VAT, has settled at $515/mt, up by $5/mt over the past week due to the continued strength of the RMB. The reference price for imported billet in China has slightly increased to $515-520/mt CFR, versus $500-520/mt CFR last week.