Offers prices for imported billet in Southeast Asia have increased sharply this week amid the uptrend in raw material prices, scrap in particular, and still strong support from Chinese billet imports. Nevertheless, most customers from Southeast Asia have been assessing the workable level as being visibly lower.
The latest offers from Vietnam and India for BOF billet have been received by buyers in the Philippines at $600/mt CFR, with only some of them being slightly lower, by $5-10/mt. Offers at $590/mt CFR and $5/mt lower have only been for IF billet, according to sources. Suppliers have increased prices sharply from last week’s levels of $565-590/mt CFR, mainly owing to the continued appetite for billet in China and the uptrend in the scrap segment.
Buyers’ price ideas have also improved since last week, but they are still lagging behind significantly. This week, the tradable price level for customers in the Philippines has reached $580/mt CFR, up by $10-20/mt compared to last week. But “there is a gap between new offers and buying prices, and so actual deals are hard,” a re-roller from Manila said. “The real price has been at $580/mt CFR since last week, but offers are spread out up to $600/mt CFR, mostly Asian billet offers and they are higher due to China buying billets,” a local source said.
By the end of the week, buyers from the Philippines are out of the market due to holidays. “We will be back on Monday. Business this week was very slow,” a trader from the Philippines said.
In other Southeast Asian countries, demand has also been limited, according to sources. “In the last couple of days, buyers have been saying that the market is not above $570-575/mt CFR for them,” an international trader said.
Prices for ex-Iran billet have been assessed at $580/mt CFR minimum in Southeast Asia from traders, but in the current market conditions it will increase more in the near future, sources said.
Billet prices to East Asia have also reached $600/mt CFR and one deal for Russian material has already been heard at this level. “We believe prices will increase further,” a trader said.
The SteelOrbis reference price for import billet in Southeast Asia has increased to $580-600/mt CFR this week, up $20-30/mt over the past week. “The market went up too quickly. Customers need time to adjust,” a source said.