Indian billet exporters have attempted to push up volumes aggressively over the past week, anticipating increased buying from China ahead of its long holiday. However, deals were rare and bids have declined since late last week, SteelOrbis has learned.
Indian integrated steel mills led by government-run producers are still targeting $630/mt FOB and the lowest possible level has been at $620/mt FOB, but unlike last week, when the highest deal price level reached $629.5/mt FOB, no information about fresh contracts for Indian BOF billets has been reported this week so far.
Sources said that a government-run steel company failed to close the tender for 150 mm billet which it had opened early this week. “The bids were not sufficient,” a trader said. Another major Indian seller also held an auction for the same size billet this week, but there was still no result by Thursday.
A trader managed to sell a cargo of Indian billet at $700/mt CFR early this week with a number of sources saying it was purchased a bit earlier.
Some support for ex-India FOB prices has come from lower freight rates. “Freights have started to cool off. Now some traders are costing it as low as $65-70/mt for 30,000 mt of billet from India to China,” a trader said.
The highest possible level for BOF billet from India has been assessed by market sources at $625/mt FOB. “Local exporters have set a target price of $630-640/mt FOB, anticipating an increase in interest from China,” a Mumbai-based trader said. However, at least two other traders said that, since the energy consumption cuts have started to impact re-rollers’ outputs, demand from China has been reduced.
A private integrated steel mill in Odisha has reported a trade to China at $615-620/mt FOB, sources said. But this deal is assessed as being a bit older.
Some small parcels of IF billet from India were traded at $605-615/mt FOB to Southeast Asia.
