The stronger local rebar and billet prices in China seen last week have pushed up deal prices for imported material. As a result, up to 100,000 mt of ex-CIS billet has been sold to China at higher prices.
Two lots of 40,000-50,000 mt each from a major Ukranian mill have been traded at $375/mt CFR China for June-July shipment, which is $8-9/mt higher than the previous bookings of Russian billet to China. The recent deals price is equivalent to $340-345/mt FOB Black Sea, $5/mt higher than the SteelOrbis daily reference price on Friday.
At the moment, Chinese traders are receiving offers for imported billet at $380/mt CFR and above. “It is impossible to find billet below $380/mt CFR at the moment. And it seems that more will be imported to China, if domestic prices stay strong,” a Chinese trader said.
Billet offers from the Black Sea region have mostly increased to $345-355/mt FOB and some mills have even voiced $360-370/mt FOB, because they do not have June shipment allocations. The price increase followed the recent scrap price improvement in China as deal levels exceeded $250/mt CFR Turkey again. Some market participants think that the uptrend in the billet segment will be short-lived.