Iranian billet producers have been struggling to make sizeable sales lately, under pressure from the global downturn in the steel and key raw materials segments. Iranian mills have considered the received bids to be unacceptable in most cases, at least for now, and so the number of transactions has been limited.
According to sources, an Iranian producer has recently traded 30,000 mt of billet for export at $492/mt FOB for 3SP 150 mm material to be shipped in June. In addition, another supplier is reported to have sold a similar lot at around $475-480/mt FOB. Some producers have managed to sell some cargoes through the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) - there has been a 20,000 mt lot traded at IRR 205,000/kg or around $485/mt FOB according to the current exchange rate.
The latest ex-Iran offers in Asia have been reported at $535/mt CFR with the tradable level estimated at $520/mt CFR which nets back to around $470-475/mt FOB. In Turkey, the latest offers for truckloads have been set at $530-540/mt CPT, with the delivery cost estimated at $60-65/mt. In the GCC, some negotiations have been heard at $510-515/mt CFR, with bids from the UAE reported at $500-505/mt CFR. In Oman, there has been talk about negotiations at $520-525/mt delivered.
While the billet trade is somewhat challenging for the Iranian mills, there have been quite successful sales of slabs from Iran. According to some sources, an Asian customer booked a total of 120,000 mt slabs from Iran at $540/mt CFR or around $500/mt FOB. The cargoes will be shipped in June.
In addition, a fresh tender for 25,000 mt of billet to be delivered in the second half of June has been announced. The deadline for bids is May 9 and, according to sources, most bids are unlikely to exceed $470-480/mt FOB.
