India’s billet export shipments saw a fall of 22% in Oct’20 to reach 520,000 t. China (~97,021 t), Sri Lanka (~77,000 t), and Indonesia (~61,000 t) remained the major destinations followed by Malaysia and Thailand. RINL, JSPL, SAIL, and Mono Steel stood as the prominent exporters during the period under consideration.
The majority of the mills have curbed their export allocations on better price realizations in the domestic market, which resulted in a drop in the export shipments.
However, even the Indian mills are getting better price values in the domestic market than export, but due to increasing raw material and scrap prices amid supply shortage, the conversion spread between billets & rebar narrowed down in Oct’20.
Outlook: Indian billet export shipments are likely to fall in the coming months as seasonal domestic construction activity is to fetch strong demand. Clues can bet witnessed by JSPL’s recent announcement on export cut down.
The company is planning to cut down its steel exports to 20% share of total sales officials quoted in a recently conducted investor conference call. During the lockdown, the company was exporting a 70-72% share of total sales. The officials also highlighted that the company will be primarily exporting finished steel instead of semis.
However, Vizag Steel is likely to remain active in the global billet export market. Notably, Vizag Steel relit its second shuttered blast furnace (BF) on 18 Oct’20. With the re-igniting, all of RINL’s three BFs have gone operational.
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