A few deals for Chinese billets have been reported in the SE Asian import billet market after some additional discounts. This has been the result of very weak buying during July. Moreover, there have been fewer volumes offered of low-priced sanctioned materials.
One deal for Chinese 5SP has been heard at $480-482/mt CFR, while another was reported at $478/mt CFR, both to the Philippines and involving two major importers. “SE Asia seems satisfied with Chinese-origin material for the time being, as other offers are higher,” a trader from Singapore said. In particular, offers for Indian 3SP/4SP BOF billet have been heard at $485/mt CFR in SE Asia, and this level is “too far to attract interest,” a source said.
In addition, according to market sources, a major Indonesian mill has sold 2-3 lots of 20,000-30,000 mt of billets each at around $460/mt FOB, but all the volumes have been taken by traders, mainly for the Middle East market.
There has also been some intra-ASEAN billet trading, with small volumes of ex-Vietnam and ex-Thailand billet under discussion at $450-455/mt FOB.
Ex-China 3SP BOF billet offers in Indonesia and Thailand have been at $477-480/mt CFR, but there have been no deals reported so far. “I think buyers can get $475/mt CFR, but even this is not good,” an Indonesian source said. Some offers for ex-Iran billet have been heard at $465/mt CFR, but mainly for material already on the water. In general, there have been fewer offers from Iran.
The SteelOrbis reference price for import billet in SE Asia (excluding sanctioned material) has been settled at $475-480/mt CFR, stable on average over the week as offers have been adjusted closer to the buyers' price ideas.
