Though sentiments in the local Indian billet market have been rather weak this week, the mood in the international market has improved and more active negotiations have been seen with Indian sellers. However, despite the rise in the number of inquiries, deals have been limited due to the continuing gap between bids and offers, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Wednesday, January 15.
The Indian billet reference price has indicatively moved down by $10/mt on average over the past week to $440-460/mt FOB, where the higher end of the range still reflects large mills’ target levels. However, while in previous weeks negotiations were almost at a standstill due to uncompetitive offers from Indian sellers, some improvement has now been seen in real market negotiations.
Sources said that, while market participants were perceiving the market to have bottomed out in the current cycle on the back of a slight improvement in ex-China prices, buyers in major destinations have remained cautious as regards accepting higher prices since the weakness of demand has persisted.
At the same time, sellers have only been offering small volumes, waiting for a firmer consolidation of the market, the sources said. Some negotiations in the Middle East, the UAE and Qatar in particular have been heard at $440-445/mt FOB. Most other buyers are still bidding lower, at $430-435/mt FOB at the highest.
Meanwhile, in the local Indian market, billet trade prices have continued to seek lower levels, with rebar prices entering a new downtrend and secondary mills reducing offtake of semis. Billet trade prices are down INR 200/mt ($2/mt) to INR 42,100/mt ($484/m) ex-Mumbai and down INR 250/mt ($3/mt) to INR 39,000/mt ($449/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region.
