After the previous price decline in Southeast Asia’s import billet market, the trend has been paused, with low-priced offers from India fading away. Also, most customers have considered purchases from Iran to be too risky.
Most offers for 5SP billet have been heard at $480-485/mt CFR Manila, with the main source being China. The previous deal for 5SP was at $477/mt CFR in the Philippines and most buyers are still bidding at $475/mt CFR at the highest. “There are no Indian offers now. Freight is not cheap today,” a Manila-based source said. A few market sources confirmed that they mainly see offers for Chinese and Indonesian billet at present.
The ex-China 3SP billet reference price has settled at $460-465/mt FOB, which is $2.5/mt higher than last week, but stable from early this week. At the same time, Indonesian billet offers have rebounded by $5/mt since the middle of the week to $465/mt FOB, for September shipment.
As for Iranian billets, some rare offers (for both 3SP and 5SP) are still heard at $470-480/mt CFR in Thailand and Indonesia. However, a source in Thailand commented, “There are no Iran billet offers after the resumption of military strikes. So, basically there is no market because no one can sell billet lower than $480/mt CFR, and buyers will not agree with this price.”
The SteelOrbis reference price for import billet in Southeast Asia has settled at $475-485/mt CFR, up by $2.5/mt over the past week.
