Prices for imported billet in Southeast Asia have moved up further, following a few deals at higher levels. The overall offered volume has been limited in the market, so major exporters have been hiking their offer prices further. Though Chinese buyers have not been ready to resume purchases, the supply-demand balance in the billet market in Asia has not been bad.
20,000 mt in total of Indonesian BOF billet have been traded to Malaysia at $452-453/mt CFR this week. Previously, the Indonesian exporter was focused on sales to China, but since falling futures prices and downtrend in the local Chinese market have been keeping most customers there from purchases, the producer has redirected volumes to Southeast Asia.
New deals at above $450/mt CFR are awaited in the Philippines. Late last week, a small volume of about 6,000 mt from Japan was sold at $450/mt CFR to the Philippines, which is “the traditional monthly volume,” according to sources. Also, as reported earlier, ex-Russia billet was traded at $450/mt CFR Manila last week, with local sources mentioning that both 100 mm and 130 mm billet were sold. Over the past two weeks, one of the main CIS exporters sold up to 60,000 mt of billet to the Philippines, SteelOrbis has learned from source in the Philippines.
At the moment, offers for ex-Russia and ex-S. Korea billet have reached $460/mt CFR in the Philippines. “$450/mt CFR is a good price for buyers now, but there are not many offers,” a trader said.
Chinese importers have not been interested in purchases with some sources assessing the possible tradable value for non-Southeast Asian billet at not above $430/mt CFR. Billet prices in Tangshan have been falling continuously from last week - by an additional RMB 20/mt ($3/mt) today and around RMB 80/mt ($12/mt) over the past week.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported billet in Southeast Asia has increased marginally to $450-455/mt CFR, from $450/mt CFR on average late last week.