Indian billet exporters were successful in improving prices realizations on rising fresh deals over the past week as Chinese interest in imported semis continued to gain strength from prospects of fall in liquid steel prices, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles.
More Chinese steel mills focussing on adding value to semis, anticipating fall in liquid steel output, enabled ex-India billets to gain further strength with the tradable price level increasing to $630-645/mt FOB, compared to $620-640/mt FOB a week ago.
“Price of billets in local markets is on an upturn following improvement in local rebar prices. The rise in the Chinese buying, both in terms of fresh deals and volumes helped local producers to align higher local price with matching increases in export price,” an official from Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) said.
“This is a very positive sign. The improvements in price is an indication that seasonal fall is nearing an end and as the rainy season in China, India and other Asian region wanes, it will send strong signals for revival on long product prices and this will be reflected in rising Chinese import dependency on semis,” he added.
Sources said that a southern India based government run steel mill concluded a spot export tender this week for 30,000 mt with highest bid received at above $633/mt FOB from a trading firm and final destination of China based end user.
Another government run steel company reported a tender for the same volume from its Chhattisgarh based steel mill and though some sources said that it has not been closed yet, the highest bid has been heard at $641/mt FOB from an Asian trading house.
An Odisha based private integrated steel mill reported a trade of sizable volume at slightly above $640/mt FOB. The freight to China is assessed at $70-80/mt so the final price on CFR basis is around $715-720/mt CFR.
Meanwhile, triggered by improvement in merchant buying of billets following the rise in rebar prices of secondary steel mills, local billet prices was up INR 1,000/mt ($13/mt) to levels of INR 41,200/mt ($554/mt) ex-works, sources said.
$1= INR 74.40
