This week, the Iranian billet export market was noted silent due to the disparity between bids and offers. The mills are looking for $365-370/t, FoB levels, while buyers are bidding at $355-360/t, Fob levels. During a conversation with SteelMint, an Iranian market participant mentioned “$365/t, FoB levels seem difficult to achieve in current situation $350-355/t, FoB levels are optimum for both sides.”
Owing to disparity, few mills have extended their export tenders, as they did not get the desired prices. The auctions are likely to get concluded if the disparity reduces, SteelMint learned from trade sources.
SteeMint assessment for billet export offers from Iran has fallen to $365-370/t FoB Iran, down by $5 against last week.
Chinese bidders pulled Iran’s billet offers – Currently, China is bidding at $395/t, CFR for non-ASEAN and $405/t, CFR for ASEAN billets. With $25 freight from Iran to China and almost $2-5 other charges like money exchange and transfer, the cost of Iranian billet goes as high as $30. Also, Iranian material gets around $5 less than other origin products. So, considering no margin for the buyer, it exceeds correct bids from China for Iran Sep’20 delivery. A market participant mentioned “Since, India is gifted with lower freight and better chance to sell by LC as well as it’s not sanctioned, this possesses better opportunity for Indian billet.
Domestic billet prices witness a fall in recent trades at IME: On 1 Jul’20, around 59,119 t billets were offered at IME. However, only 12,618 t billet trades were approved, while the remaining 46,501 t lot was canceled by the government, as deal values of this lot have exceeded the government’s price guidelines. The average traded price was noted to be IRR 64,878/kg ($390/t), excluding tax, down IRR 3012/kg.
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