Indian billet exporters have attempted to aggressively push up their prices perceiving demand to be reviving in key destinations, while raw material prices have been supporting billet prices from the cost side, SteelOrbis has learned from trade and industry circles.
Ex-India billets tradable prices have reached $480-500/mt FOB, up significantly from last week’s levels of $460-470/mt FOB, and new offers have increased to $505-510/mt FOB at the lowest.
According to sources, an eastern India-based mill has reported a trade for 15,000 mt with an Asian buyer at $475/mt FOB. A government-run steel producer with a mill located in the eastern region has concluded a spot sale of 20,000 mt for delivery to a Singapore-based steel trading firm at $480/mt FOB, the sources said.
But after these deals, such prices are already assessed as being too low in the current market conditions, as Southeast Asian buyers have accepted the recent increase and the levels of $500-505/mt FOB from India have been assessed as workable.
“There is optimism over the demand revival across the Asian and Gulf regions. But it is still a buyers’ market and there is lot of resistance from the latter to higher prices. There is also a re-surfacing of cheaper ex-Russian volumes flowing into the market, acting as a headwind for sellers to push higher prices,” an official at a government mill said.
“Price consolidation can come if China resumes buying. The acceptable price in China is still low at $420-430/mt on FOB basis and Indian sellers are not present in that market,” he said.
