Thailand Billet Imports Fall Drastically in FY18

Billet imports to Thailand reported a decline of 53% in the fiscal year of 2018, the trade statistics released by the Thailand custom reported.

The nation has imported about 1.97 MnT Billet in FY18 against 4.20 MnT in FY17, decline by 53.09% on yearly premises. While on Y-o-Y & M-o-M in Mar 2018 imports registered a fall of 18% & stood at 0.23 MnT against 0.28 MnT in Mar’17 & Feb’18.

During the period of Apr’17-Mar’18, Iran has exported approximately 52% billet (1.02 MnT) to the nation. Prior to this, in Apr’16-Mar’17 the country’s billet import was around 4.20 MnT & major imports were done from China & reported at 1.76 MnT ( around 42%).

The major reason of decline in billet imports have noticed, slump in Chinese billet exports to the Thailand which stood at 0.09 MnT in CY17 as against 2.10 MnT in CY16. China’s production curtailment and strong domestic demand led to decline billet exports from the nation.

Also, during calender year 2018, Thailand raised its economic growth forecast to 4.2% from earlier at 3.8% & majorly working to grow up its local steel production rather than dependency on imports. Thus, the country’s scrap imports boost by 65% Y-o-Y in FY18 & stood at 1.59 MnT against 0.96 MnT in FY17.

In context to export prices, the export offers of 150*150 IS 2830 grade billet are currently at USD 510-520/MT FoB India, 130*130, 3 sp at USD 480-500/MT FoB Iran & 150*150, Q235 are at 535-545/MT CNF Dubai.

Top 10 Exporters to Thailand in CY17 (Scrap & Billet )

Quantity in MnT
Sources: SteelMint Stats.