Some deals for billet from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region have been signed in the Southeast Asian market at lower prices compared to offers from major suppliers. Low bids and the cautiousness of buyers have been the major reasons for the decline. About 20,000 mt of billet have been sold from the GCC to Thailand at $395-400/mt CFR. Another trader in Thailand ordered the same volume from the Middle East at the lower end of the range late last week, sources said, but this information has not been confirmed by the time of publication.
“Prices from suppliers [from Russia and India] should be about $400-405/mt CFR, but buyers said they would not pay more than $395/mt CFR,” a trader told SteelOrbis. One Thai re-rollers has told SteelOrbis that Indian billet has been available at $400/mt CFR on Wednesday, November 6.
As reported previously, last week major suppliers increased offers to $405-410/mt CFR, with some tonnages sold at this level. Exporters have been insisting on the same level in offers to the Philippines this week as well, but with a lack of response so far.
Market participants expect China to return to the import billet market soon. Sales were concluded to China last week due to the gradual local price decrease in the country, but since the domestic market there has started to rebound recently, the situation in the overall Asian market may improve. Average local billet prices in China have added RMB 25/mt ($4/mt) to RMB 3,438/mt ($491/mt) ex-warehouse on Wednesday compared to Tuesday, according to SteelOrbis’ data. The average import offer prices including tax and 13 percent VAT are at $467-473/mt CFR, and so the gap with domestic prices is still about $20/mt.