The SE Asian import billet market has continued to be slow this week and prices have failed to move in any direction as lower position offers in earlier this week have either remained the same or increased later this week amid some improvement seen in futures, SteelOrbis learned from the market on July 13.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported billet in SE Asia has been settled at $518-520/mt CFR by the end of the week, slightly up from $515-520/mt CFR reported on Tuesday, and relatively stable with very small decline compared to $520/mt CFR last week.
The lowest offers seen in the Philippines have been still for 5SP IF billet – at $513/mt CFR Manila versus $515/mt CFR last week. “I don’t see demand, and if someone will need to book the target prices would be closer to $510/mt CFR,” a source said.
Offers for ex-ASEAN and ex-China EAF/BOF billet have been in the range of $515-530/mt CFR Manila, where the lower end of the range corresponds to offers for position cargoes from China seen earlier this week. On Thursday, market sources said that Chinese traders have started to withdraw too low offers, seeing rebound in futures. However, “I think the $515/mt CFR is pretty reachable, even though there are no firm offers at this level today,” an Asian trader said.
In Thailand and Indonesia, the market has also been slow with traders are offering not below $520/mt CFR mainly. “Iranian material is too expensive, so only China is an option, but the market in general is weak,” an Indonesian importer commented.
“I believe that prices should rise after a few days of increases in China [in the futures market], but not sure if someone can accept it,” a Singapore-based trader said.
