Ex-India billet prices have been rather stable over the past week amid moderate-to-good trade activity, but price realizations have still been below sellers’ expectations and buyers are “sensitive” to higher levels, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Wednesday, May 20.
According to the sources, a government-run mill closed an export tender for 30,000 mt on May 19. While there has been no information about the final price level, some market sources said they heard the highest bid at around $470-475/mt FOB. Although the sales contracts with the buyers were not finalized yet, market sources think that the final price can be a bit higher than that and only slightly below the prices in similar tenders earlier in the month which closed at $477-482/mt FOB, but still below expectations above the $480/mt FOB mark set by RINL last week.
Another private mill said it sold 20,000 mt for delivery to the Gulf Cooperation Council region at $485/mt FOB, which is somewhat on the highest side in the current conditions.
An eastern India-based mill also reported a sale of 20,000 at $478/mt FOB, but there has been no confirmation of the details of this deal by the time of publication.
The SteelOrbis ex-India billet reference price has settled at $473-485/mt FOB, with the lower end of the range down slightly by $4/mt over the past week.
“Trade activity is improving particularly with Gulf buyers active again with shipping solutions becoming relatively workable. But acceptable prices are not improving as much from a seller’s point of view. The positive is that better export trade volumes are welcomed by local mills facing declining prices and volumes in the local market,” a source at an Indian mill said.
Meanwhile, billet trade prices have continued to seek lower levels as rolling mills have reduced off-take faced with rising inventories of long products and pressures on margins. Billet trade prices have slipped INR 500/mt ($5/mt) to INR 43,200/mt ($447/mt) ex-Mumbai and are down INR 750/mt ($8/mt) to INR 39,100/mt ($4-5/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region.
