There has been no common trend in the Asian billet market early this week with the mood in China starting to improve amid expectations that more stimuli will be announced next week. At the same time, some ASEAN mills have cut offer prices, trying to push sales abroad.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-China billet has remained stable at $445-455/mt FOB today, December 3, similar to late last week and the week before. “The Chinese market is better these days. The major mills have no interest in selling billet in the export market mainly as the central government meeting will be held in about a week,” a large Chinese trader said. Another trader confirmed that the current offers are near the $450/mt FOB level, and no lower offers have been voiced for now.
The official offer price from the Indonesian mill stands at $460/mt FOB for February shipment, down by $5-10/mt over the past week. There have been reports about some limited volume sold at this level to a trader to cover a short position. “Europe will be on holiday soon. The cold weather is impacting demand and will bring freight higher,” a source from the ASEAN region said. Slab offers from Indonesia have also been cut, from $460/mt FOB to $450/mt FOB for January shipment.
Also, a deal for 130 mm 5SP billet from Vietnam has been sold to a trader at $470/mt FOB. The contract was done over a week ago, according to market sources, and the material is for the regional import market in Asia.
Official offer price levels for billet from Malaysia are at $470/mt FOB, which is rather high and due to the lack of urgent needs of exporters to sell abroad.
Trading on FOB-basis has been rather limited, but Chinese traders have remained active. In particular, there has been a deal from a Chinese trader at $465-470/mt CFR to Vietnam. “Chinese origin billets in fact are up by around $5/mt, with traders offering at $470/mt CFR [3SP grade] to Taiwan now,” a Singapore-based source said. Also, according to market sources, the tradable level for 3SP billet in Indonesia has increased from $460/mt CFR to $465/mt CFR.
As for the Philippines, the lowest offers are now at $470/mt CFR for 3SP 150 mm billet and $472-473/mt CFR for 5SP 150 mm. As a result, import billet offers have increased by at least $3-5/mt from last week amid the better mood in China.