Local Iranian traders are currently offering ready stock CIS billet of 125 x 125 mm and 150 x 150 mm sizes at $480/mt and $460/mt ex-stock respectively. As inventories of 100 x 100 mm billet are low in Iran, most local traders are currently not making any offer for this billet size, while those who have stocks of the size in question are mentioning higher prices.
Iranian privately-owned re-rollers have a combined capacity of about 12 million mt per year and so require at least 12 million mt of billet per year. However, Khouzestan Steel, the main state-owned supplier of semi-finished material, has a capacity of about 2.4 million mt of semi-finished steel and mainly supplies governmental mills. Meanwhile, local privately-owned billet producers - with capacities in the range of 100,000 mt to 300,000 mt - have a total capacity of less than one million mt per year. Consequently, the lion's share of market demand for billet and other semi-finished steel has to be satisfied by imports. Iran purchases its shortfall of billet and other semi-finished steel mainly from the CIS countries, while it also frequently imports Chinese billet.
According to the Iranian customs authorities, Iran imported about 770,000 mt of semi-finished steel (mainly billet) in the first two months of the current Iranian year (started March 21), compared to about 550,000 mt in the corresponding period of the previous year.