Active Chinese billet purchases have supported price rises for imported material over the past week. Market participants are waiting for more bookings at higher prices, but Chinese traders have been showing some caution due to the pause in the uptrend in their local market.
According to market sources, some small volumes of billet from Russia’s Far East region have been sold to China at close to $480/mt CFR base, which is $15/mt above the previous tradable level for non-Southeast Asian billet heard in the market early last week. There have been no confirmed bookings from the Black Sea region to China so far, though sources are widely discussing this. Since late last week, large CIS-based mills have been assessing the possibilities for selling billet to China. “China will be ready to pay $480/mt CFR [for Black Sea billet], maybe not at the moment, but in the coming days,” a CIS-based exporter said. At the same time, Chinese traders have said that long lead times and the pause in the uptrend in the domestic billet market in China have prevented buyers from signing deals at higher prices so far. Market sources have been waiting for the further development of the local market in China and more deals for imported semis to confirm the higher price level.
Offers for Southeast Asian billet have increased to $490/mt CFR China recently after the deal price level reported at $475/mt CFR last week. But the new level has not been reflected in contracts, according to sources.
Local prices for billet in Tangshan have lost RMB 10/mt ($1.5/mt) over the weekend to RMB 3,560/mt ex-works including 13 percent VAT.