After the first offers for 130 mm ex-Indonesia billet from the major producer Dexin Steel to the Philippines heard early this week, information about the first deal has come to light by the end of this week. Most market sources believe that Dexin Steel will be able to take a market share from Russian suppliers in the Philippines, who are under sanctions.
According to sources, a deal for 130 mm 3SP billet from Dexin Steel to the Philippines has been done at $670/mt CFR, down from offers reported earlier for the same grade from this mill at $675-678/mt CFR. “They [Dexin Steel] started to sell, but since the market is still falling I don’t think that $670/mt CFR is still workable,” a Singapore-based trader said. One of the trading sources said that at least one offer from Dexin, also for 3SP, has already been done at $665-670/mt CFR. “Now the market is full of rumours due to bearish sentiment,” a source in Manila said.
Offers of some other origins from BOF and EAF suppliers in the ASEAN region for 3SP billet have been reported at $680/mt CFR, down from $690-700/mt CFR heard early this week.
In the Philippines, the most competitive offers except ex-Dexin prices were IF quotations. Ex-Thailand IF billet has been offered at $655/mt CFR, while ex-Vietnam IF material has been available at $665/mt CFR.
Market sources said that, though suppliers have been offering ex-Russia billet cheaply, with sellers’ price ideas at $620-630/mt CFR to the Philippines, customers in the country are not ready to purchase given payment and delivery risks. As a result, the offers which have emerged of ex-Dexin 130 mm billet (while the mill was producing mainly 150 mm billet before its upgrade) have given customers more opportunities, though prices are still expected to go down as supply is exceeding demand.
Accordingly, Russian suppliers have been switching to negotiations with China and Taiwan mainly. Offers to China have been heard at $600-620/mt CFR, but bids have gone down to $590-595/mt CFR at the highest.
After the recent ex-Dexin deal to the Philippines, the SteelOrbis reference price for imported billet to Southeast Asia has declined to $670-680/mt CFR, down by $30-40/mt over the past week from $710/mt CFR and are down from $675-690/mt CFR reported earlier this week.