Foreign buyers’ interest in billet exports from Iran has increased in the past couple of weeks and some Iranian suppliers have managed to sell ready cargoes in 5,000-20,000 mt lots at rather high prices. Currently, the GCC region offers the best chance for Iran to sell billet with high margins, given the rather high domestic longs and billet offer prices in the region. The Asian markets, however, are less promising, being dominated by local suppliers.
Currently, Iranian mills are trying to evaluate the market situation and the demand potential in view of possible increases in their billet production, now when issues of limited power supply for industrial usage in Iran seem to be soothing. Currently, the average capacity utilization rate for billet in Iran is evaluated at 60 percent and at 70 percent for the leading mills.
According to sources, in the past two weeks some considerable volumes have been sold from Iran for export, consisting of ready cargos or lots with close shipment dates, at $415-430/mt FOB. Currently, the large mills are said to be targeting $430-440/mt FOB and even higher in the new tenders for October shipments. However, some traders report they are struggling to sell billet from Iran at $405-410/mt FOB at the moment.
In the GCC, ex-Iran offers are now at $455-465/mt CFR UAE, up $10-20/mt over the past month, considering the recently increased local rebar prices in the Emirates. In addition, billet offers from neighboring Qatar and Oman to the UAE are at $495-500/mt CPT, making Iranian prices for billet quite attractive.
In Asia, the indicative prices for billet from Iran are evaluated at $420-430/mt FOB with freight around $30-35/mt, being not quite workable against Chinese offers at $455-460/mt CFR. Last week, a 30,000 mt 130 mm billet cargo from Iran was offered to Taiwan at $458/mt CFR, with no interest seen.
Some of the Iranian sellers are trying to sell to Africa, with not much success seen just yet. The workable levels to the eastern part of the continent have been reported at $485/mt CFR, versus offers at least $10/mt higher from China. Egyptian buyers seem to be reluctant to deal for Iranian billet despite the low price of $480/mt CFR. In Turkey, interest in Iranian material is also not quite present, with some rare bids reported at $440-450/mt delivered to the Iskenderun region, SteelOrbis understands.