Ex-India billet offers have been kept unchanged and are largely considered notional as competition across the Asian region is tough and bids from some buyers have dropped below the $450/mt FOB mark, unviable for local mills, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Wednesday, November 27.
Ex-India billet offer prices are unchanged at $460-480/mt FOB and large mills have not considered any adjustments with deals perceived to be impossible, with large-volume offers across Asian destinations rising and prices falling rapidly in reaction to renewed aggressive ex-China sales.
While no deals have been reported over the past week, sources said that at least two eastern India-based mills have commenced spot sale negotiations for an aggregate volume of 60,000 mt, but both sellers called off talks once buyers submitted the price they considered acceptable at $440/mt FOB.
The reference price for ex-India billet has settled at $450-460/mt FOB this week, down by $5/mt over the past week.
The absence of government mills, the more prominent exporters of semis from the country, for the past two months, has been an indication of that sharp erosion of competitiveness as sellers from China became more aggressive both in volumes and prices.
Meanwhile, the downtrend in local billet merchant prices has continued, with trade prices down INR 100/mt ($1/mt) to INR 42,200/mt ($501/mt) ex-Mumbai and down INR 450/mt ($5/mt) to INR 38,750/mt ($460/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region.
