Ex-India billet prices have remained stable over the past week, while trading activity has remained silent with most mills focusing on much better local billet sales. In the export market, the outlook has become pessimistic as some Chinese billet volumes, booked for the Middle East, could be diverted to Asia and cause mounting supply-side pressure, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Wednesday, March 4.
Sources said that, while ex-India billet indicative prices are stable at $455-460/mt FOB, interest in trading has been poor from both sellers and buyers, with the latter expecting that prices may come under pressure if some large exporters divert volumes from the Middle East to East Asian markets.
A prolonged war in the Middle East would further fuel crude oil price rises and be reflected in higher global freight rates, weakening the correlation between FOB prices and freight rates, increasing end-use prices for buyers.
However, immediate pressures on Indian mills to sell billet overseas has been somewhat mitigated by the recent rebound in domestic finished steel prices and the resultant improvement in trade volumes and prices seen in the commercial trade of semis.
Increasing demand from rolling mills have pushed up billet merchant trade prices by INR 1,000/mt ($11/mt) to INR 44,000/mt ($478/mt) ex-Mumbai and up INR 1,250/mt ($14/mt) to INR 41,250/mt ($448/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region.
