Trading activity in the Southeast Asian billet market has revived recently, but the buyers have been focusing on buying cheaper IF materials.
In particular, one lot of at least 10,000 mt of Malaysian 5SP IF billet has been traded to the Philippines at $518/mt CFR, according to a number of sources. Usually, IF billet is priced up to $10/mt lower than EAF/BOF material, so this signals that the tradable level for 5SP EAF/BOF billet has already reached $528-530/mt CFR Manila. Another deal for ex-Thailand 3SP IF has been closed at near $505/mt CFR, but the low price is because this is material from stock, which has been offered in the market over a quite a long time.
Offers for ex-ASEAN EAF/BOF billets have been coming to the Philippines at $530-535/mt CFR at the lowest, where the lower end represents some ex-Vietnam offers. “$530/mt CFR maybe for 3SP, but even that is considered competitive today,” a Manila-based trader said. Direct offers from BF mills from Indonesia and Malaysia are coming at $545-550/mt CFR.
As for other Asian markets, Thai buyers have been receiving offers for ex-Iran billet at $510-515/mt CFR, with no interest from buyers so far.
In Taiwan, the Russian mill has been trying to sell vanadium-added billet at $520-525/mt CFR, versus previous offers at $515/mt CFR.
The SteelOrbis reference price for 3SP/5SP import billet in Southeast Asia has been settled at $528-535/mt CFR, with the midpoint at $531.5/mt CFR, up by $1.5/mt on average from last week. But this week, unlike last week, this level has been proved in a number of bids and deals.
