Indian integrated steel mills have continued to lower billet export prices in reaction to the slight fall in buying by Chinese importers and have maintained sales overseas with shipments mostly through eastern coast ports, SteelOrbis has learned on Wednesday, April 8.
Market sources said that Indian billet export prices of integrated steel mills have ranged at $350-353/mt FOB, down from $350-356/mt FOB last week. Moreover, the tradable value has already dropped to $345/mt FOB.
The sources said that in total 30,000-35,000 mt of billet have been sold by Indian mills over the past week and a large volume is still being offered. Mostly eastern India-based steel mills have been active in the export market, having better access to eastern coast ports, which are comparatively less congested than those on the west coast, and exporters have been able to give better delivery commitments to Chinese buyers.
An eastern India based-steel mill has concluded an export contract with a China-based trading firm for end-of-May delivery at around $350/mt FOB through Paradip port in eastern India. A second eastern India-based steel mill has also sold to China, but at a slightly higher level. This price level corresponds to about $365/mt CFR.
Nevertheless, the latest deal for Indian billet was done to China at $359/mt CFR, sources said. This price corresponds to $345/mt FOB, but there has been no confirmation regarding whether it was from a mill or from a trader.
“Chinese buyers are seeing some pressures on prices of some rolled products. But imported billet prices are still at a discount to a local price,” a manager at an eastern India steel mill said.
“Integrated steel mills including us have sharply reduced their own captive conversion to rolled long products as there is no demand in the local market. The focus on aggressive pricing of billets, supported by the Indian currency being at a historical low, allowed us to increase exports of semis and maintain plant capacity,” he added.