Indian billet export activity has fallen completely silent over the past week, responding to the further widening of the gap between bids and offers, even though local prices have declined, SteelOrbis has learned from trade and industry circles.
At least one government mill had put out a spot offer for 20,000 mt of prime concast billet with the lowest acceptable price assessed at $460/mt FOB, but it failed to receive any bid at such a level. Though not confirmed by the seller, trade circles speculated that the highest bid received was around $440-450/mt FOB and hence no deal could be concluded. This compared to bids at $450-460/mt FOB last week and $480/mt FOB achieved earlier in August.
According to the sources, sentiments in key destination markets have significantly weakened over the past week, reflected in declining bids. At the moment, the tradable level for imported billet in China has fallen to below $490/mt CFR (so $445/mt FOB from India at the highest). In Southeast Asia, the workable levels have been higher, but demand for 150 mm billet is limited and buyers prefer cheaper ex-Iran billet.
“The mood is getting gloomier as absence of overseas sales is coinciding with consecutive weeks of sharp drop in local merchant sales price of billets. At least one government mill had already committed increasing export allocations of semis anticipating a turnaround in some overseas markets. Now the inventory pressures are rising,” an official with a government mill said.
For the second consecutive week, local billet trade prices have witnessed big losses and fallen by INR 1,000/mt ($12/mt) to INR 50,500/mt ($635/mt) ex-Mumbai. Also, the level of billet prices in Raipur has fallen as low as INR 47,500-48,000/mt ($594-600/mt).