News about sizable sales of Indonesian billets has emerged in the middle of the week and the seller’s side confirmed that in total around 100,000 mt of billet were traded lately. Though there has been no information about the trade destinations for these volumes and a visible part of them is said was taken by traders in positions, market sources believe that growing interest for semis from the GCC countries could be a supportive factor.
Deals for June and July shipment billets in three lots of more have been heard as done at around $480-485/mt FOB, according to market sources. New offer by Dexin Steel is for August shipment billets at $485/mt FOB, this is stable over a day, but slightly down by $5/mt from the level seen late last week. “Dexin price is still high for SEA [Southeast Asia], so it can go only to the Middle East in my opinion,” an international trader said.
Market sources report that due to problems with shipments of pellets to the GCC because of the war, major steel mills in the GCC started to face challenges in own HBI production. So, they are looking for semis from overseas to support finished steel production. One deal to Qatar as done from China for 40,000 mt has already been reported earlier this week, though some traders believe that trader may ship Indonesian material. There have been no new deals reported to Saudi Arabia, but market sources believe that the UAE may be in the market for billet as well. The tradable level for Asian billet to the GCC is at $530-535/mt CFR (for port of Oman and Saudi Arabia).
Indonesian offer for slab is still for July and stable at $545/mt FOB amid previous sales and shortage seen in the market.
The recent Indonesian sale price has been rather high for the Turkish market, where Chinese billet was available at $520-530/mt CFR this week (translating to $470-480/mt FOB) and it has failed to gain any interest with the latest reported sales to the Izmir region at $515/mt CFR.
In SE Asia, after a sale for Chinese 5SP billet at $497-498/mt CFR Manila, there have been no new bookings reported with most offers around $500-505/mt CFR at the moment. Indonesian mill offered 3SP billet to the local market at $505/mt CFR for July shipment earlier this week. “I think we will find some $490-495/mt CFR for 3SP [from China] from traders who have positions,” a local buyer said.
The SteelOrbis reference price for import billet in SE Asia has been settled at $495-505/mt CFR this week, increasing by $14/mt on average over the week.
