Indian mills have managed to achieve some deals at higher levels in the spot export market over the past week and the target prices in new tenders have increased to $600/mt FOB and above for new deals, though this has still been too high to be accepted, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Wednesday, January 18.
The SteelOrbis’ reference price for ex-India billets has reached $550-560/mt FOB, up from $525-540/mt Fob last week.
The sources said that, while government mills currently have ongoing tenders aggregating 70,000 mt, one private seller concluded a trade for 20,000 mt at $550/mt FOB.
An Odisha-based private mill is heard to have concluded a deal with a Singapore-based trading firm at $560/mt FOB, indicating that higher offers are being accepted across the Asian and Gulf markets, the sources said.
“Indian sellers are very optimistic over the rising price. But whether it will touch $600/mt FOB is not certain,” an official at a private mill said.
“A new direction will become clearer once the large-volume tenders of government sellers close between January 20-23. Even if $600/mt FOB proves elusive, price achieved around $560-580/mt FOB will still be very good and keep high overseas sales active,” he said.
Meanwhile, the local billet market has recovered from a short-lived downside correction and prices staged a smart rebound on back of the tightening of supplies from integrated mills for local merchant sales. Billet price surged INR 2,500/mt ($31/mt) to INR 51,700/mt ($634/mt) ex-Mumbai and are up INR 1550/mt ($19/mt) at INR 48,200/mt ($591/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region.
$1 = INR 81.60