On Friday, June 9, major Indonesian mill Dexin Steel has announced a further increase in offers for billets, raising them from $510/mt FOB to $520/mt FOB. The previous increase was announced last Friday and since then the producer managed to sell first 60,000-70,000 mt of billets by the middle of the week.
“I heard there were some sales at above $510/mt FOB level today, so the mill hiked official offers again,” an Asian trader said. Though this has not been confirmed by the time of publication, the last deal for 10,000-20,000 mt of ex-Indonesia 3SP billet has been rumored as being done for a position to a trader at $515/mt FOB with the targeted market being Turkey. The freight has been assessed at $35-40/mt, according to sources, and so the CFR offer should be at $555/mt or so.
However, according to market sources, this material could be destined to other markets as Turkish buyers may first consider buying duty-free origins. In particular, an offer for ex-Europe billet was reported to Turkey at $560-565/mt CFR. Also, the previously reported ex-Malaysia deal done at $515/mt FOB or slightly above earlier this week could be translated to around $560/mt CFR Turkey.