Though the overall billet market situation in Southeast Asia has remained not very promising in terms of demand, prices have increased further as suppliers have been trying to lower the gap between prices to this market and to China. As a result, import billet prices to China have eased from last week, while those to Southeast Asia have improved slightly, having been too low in the previous week.
A contract for ex-Vietnam EAF billet for a limited volume was disclosed as having been done at $700/mt CFR to the Philippines last week, while another deal for billet of the same origin has been heard at $703/mt CFR this week, SteelOrbis has learned. Moreover, an ex-Russia billet order has been rumoured in the Philippines as having been concluded at above $705/mt CFR, though this could not be confirmed by the time of publication. “Buying slowed down here too in sympathy with the Chinese softening,” a Manila-based buyer said.
While most offers for EAF and BOF billet to the Philippines have been seen at $705-720/mt CFR this week, the bids have been limited and mostly have hardly been above $700/mt CFR as “customers know that something not good will happen because of the continuous drop in iron ore and news of low buying interest from China,” a local trader said.
Offers for IF billet to the Philippines have been reported at $695-705/mt CFR.
In Thailand, a contract for 10,000 mt of ex-Iran billet was done by a trader at $695/mt CFR last week and, though most sources said that the deal was in fact done, the majority of bids in the country are at $680/mt CFR at the highest. This week, some booking of billet of the same origin has been rumoured at $680/mt CFR, but the details have not been disclosed.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported billet (excluding IF) in Southeast Asia has improved further - by $15-20/mt since last week to $700-710/mt CFR.
In China, import buying has not improved after a slowdown early this week. But the local billet price in Tangshan has edged up by RMB 20/mt ($3/mt) today to RMB 5,220/mt ex-works, translating to $721/mt, excluding 13 percent VAT. Offers for imported billet have been reported at $710-720/mt CFR, versus the highest deal price level at $716-720/mt CFR late last week.