Iranian billet export market remained silent for the second consecutive week. The mills have seen extending negotiations and hosting of their tenders. We believe Iranian mills have put on wait and watch mode until the Chinese holidays considering that the market is likely to pose strong sentiments post-holidays. Few mills have softened their offers, but the leading mills are still offering in the range of $410-415/t, FoB Iran.
SteelMint assessed billet export offers from Iran to be at $405/t, FoB Iran, unchanged against last week.
KSC floats 60,000 t billet and slab export tender: Khouzestan Steel Company (KSC), Iran’s leading steel exporter, has floated an export tender for 60,000t billets and slabs (30,000t each) for Nov’20 shipments. The company’s expectation is at $410-415/t, FoB for billets, and $445-450/t, FoB for slabs. The company remained the largest Iranian steel exporter in the first five months of the current Persian year at 0.6 mn t.
Domestic billet prices at IME falls sharply: The domestic billet prices have witnessed a sharp drop of IRR 5,532/kg ($22/t) in a recent trade event hosted by the Iranian Mercantile Exchange (IME). The price drop is likely because of the recovery of IRR against $. According to SteelMint sources, On 6 Oct’20, approximately 82,400 t billets traded at an average price of IRR 93,612/kg ($376/t).
The Iranian government is likely to offer a complete steel chain supply at IME, to discover the real market prices and to maintain the transparency. The Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry has set up a joint committee with some other executive bodies to follow up on this issue.
Billet production increases 7% y-o-y during H1 Persian year: The billet production of Iran’s major steel producers, during the first half of the current Iranian year (20 Mar-20 Sep’20) has reached 11.2 mn t (up, 7% y-o-y).
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