Indian mills are expected to remain interested in billet export sales in the near future despite bids heard in the recent tenders have been below expectations of sellers, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Wednesday, November 30.
Ex-India billet prices have settled at $460-470/mt FOB this week, based on the current tradable price levels, down by $10-15/mt from last week’s levels of $475-480/mt FOB.
Last week, a government-run mill held two export tenders aggregating 50,000 mt of billets, but sales contracts have yet to be signed, with bids reported to be lower than the expectations of the seller.
Trade and internal sources said that the average price of the two highest bids ranged at $460-470/mt FOB, lower than the mill’s expectation of $500/mt FOB.
However, despite the lower price during the past week, private mills have still been active in submitting offers, prompted by the fall in sales volumes and in prices in the local market in wake of the sustained weakening of rebar prices of secondary mills.
“Markets both in Asia and the Gulf have continued to remain bearish. But Indian mills are aggressively pushing sales overseas as there are supply-side and inventory pressures following the slowdown in domestic off-take,” an official at a private mill said.
“The mood might change with the improvement of the Covid situation in China as we hear buyers are willing to conclude deals as soon as restrictions are eased,” he said.
Meanwhile in the local market in India, billet trade prices have lost INR 500/mt ($6/mt) to INR 44,200/mt ($541/mt) ex-Mumbai and remain unchanged at INR 41,800/mt ($511/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region.
$1 = INR 81.70
