Ex-India billet prices have been kept stable over the past week with sellers active in submitting offers and a few even attempting to nudge up offers on the perception that markets in key destinations may have bottomed out after the recent declines seen in China, but only stray successes in small-volume deals have been confirmed, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Wednesday, November 12.
While the tradable level for ex-India billet prices is stable in the range of $420-430/mt FOB, some sellers are heard to be submitting offers higher at around $440/mt FOB, even though stray deals have been confirmed only at lower levels.
A government-run mill is reported to have sold 20,000 mt of billet on spot basis at $425/mt FOB, but the shipment destination was not disclosed by the seller.
A private integrated mill concluded a sale of 15,000 mt at $415-420/mt FOB to an Asian trader.
“There is still no clarity on the short-term trend. But sellers consider the Asian market to have bottomed out and, while some suppliers are maintaining prices, some are even attempting to increase them even though buyers are not heard to be accepting these higher levels,” an Indian source said.
“Local merchant sales prices for semis also seem to be running out of steam and much of the recent gains have been wiped out by losses over the past week. Hence, sellers are actively submitting export offers even if there are few successful deals. There is a slight easing of ex-China pressures in terms of export volumes from the country. This is supporting some optimism among local exporters,” the source said.
In the local Indian market, merchant billet prices have lost INR 500/mt ($6/mt) to INR 37,700/mt ($426/mt) ex-Mumbai and are down INR 200/mt ($397/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region.
$1 = INR 88.64
