Vietnamese billet exports have been rather active over the past two weeks with the major supplier managing to close its December order books and start sales for January. The prices in recent deals from Vietnam to China and the Philippines are in line with the level reported earlier.
Two bookings of 5SP BOF billet from Vietnam for 20,000 mt in total have been closed at $453/mt CFR and $455/mt CFR to the Philippines this week, SteelOrbis has learned. They were for December shipment, according to sources. Negotiations for Russian billet are still ongoing in the Philippines, with customers not ready to accept price levels above $455/mt CFR yet.
There have also been reports of two contracts of Vietnamese billets to China this week. According to the newly disclosed information, a deal for 20,000 mt of 5SP billet from Vietnam has been signed at $457/mt CFR China for January shipment, with the price similar to the price in the transaction of the same grade Indonesian billet reported by SteelOrbis earlier this week. Apart from that, Vietnamese 3SP billets, also for January shipment, have been booked at $455/mt CFR China.
If billet prices in the Chinese market keep going up, Southeast Asian exporters will be able to further increase prices in their next bookings, sources believe. Average billet prices in Tangshan have increased by another RMB 10/mt ($1.5/mt) compared to yesterday, November 5, and are up RMB 60/mt ($9/mt) week on week. “Scrap prices are also on the rise, so billet prices are expected to gain further,” a trader said.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported billet in Southeast Asia has remained at $455/mt CFR.