The mood among Indian billet exporters has been supported largely based on the optimistic outlook from the rise in the number of inquiries, but deals have failed to work out due to bid-offer disparities and sellers being unwilling to adjust prices as local sales have still offered a better alternative despite a reversal of the recent uptrend, SteelOrbis has learned from trade and industry circles.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-India billet has been corrected down to $430-450/mt FOB, losing $10/mt over the past week, mainly due to lower bids received from customers. However, no confirmed deals were heard as the latest bids from the Middle East have been too low for sellers.
An eastern India-based private integrated mill has floated an export tender for 20,000 mt and, although the highest bid received was not confirmed by the seller, the market speculated that it was at around $430-435/mt FOB.
According to at least two officials at private mills, although an overall improvement was noticed in the Asian region in terms of buying interest, this was not translated in terms of workable price improvements.
“There is too much material floating in the market and the surplus on the supply side is preventing any positive impact on prices. There is too big a bid-offer gap for local mills to even consider any price adjustment to push sales overseas. We are not even sure if the very low orders are serious or not,” one of the officials said.
“For us, local sales remain a focus. Price gains may be moderating but it is still good to keep local billet sales,” he said.
Meanwhile in the local market, billet trade prices have seen a reversal, losing INR 300/mt ($3/mt) to INR 42,400/mt ($488/mt) ex-Mumbai and down INR 350/mt($4/mt) to INR 39,150/mt ($451/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region.
$1 = INR 86.90