By the end of the current week, suppliers have voiced new prices for ex-ASEAN billet, raising them by $30/mt and above as the global shortage in the market may also affect Asia, even though for now many market players do not see serious official sanctions on Russia.
New offers for ex-ASEAN billet (from Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam) are at $750-760/mt CFR Manila, while some market sources have been reporting sellers’ price ideas at even $780/mt CFR to the Philippines. This is much higher than offers from traders to the country seen at $725-740/mt CFR earlier this week.
Market sources report the latest booking done to the Philippines this week at $725/mt CFR for either ex-Malaysia or ex-Vietnam billet, but the details of the transactions could not be confirmed by the time of publication. In any case “as Dexin returned to the market with $750/mt CFR as the lowest for 3SP, I doubt that it will be possible to get much lower now,” a source said.
There are still concerns over ex-Russia billet supply and new deals even though there have been not so strict sanctions on mills so far and ports in Russia’s Far East region are not under sanctions yet. “I haven't yet heard of real issues, but there are concerns,” a trader from Singapore said.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported billet in Southeast Asia (except ex-Iran) has surged to $725-750/mt CFR, up by $22.5/mt on average from earlier this week and $32.5/mt higher than last week’s level.