Indian billet export market broadly remained silent in the absence of firm offers. However, we heard about an IF route billet deal for Sri Lanka. We could not confirm the details of this deal till the publishing time of this report.
Another trade for induction grade billet for 5,000t was reportedly concluded at $580-589/t FoB Kandla.
The global billet prices are likely to fall, with China invading the global billet market supported by sharply decreased global scrap prices. However, the marketers are not considering this (China billet offering) as a threat, as they believe China’s offering is situational. Currently, COVID has spread again in a few Chinese provinces. Hence, domestic demand has fallen and led China to offer in the export market.
An Indian state-owned mill official mentioned- ” Even though China has booked some billets in our traditional markets, but these bookings are for the time being.” Another reliable market participant said- ” All the time Chinese mills can’t afford to have billet export bookings with high export duties.”
Our analysis says Indian billet export prices may soften on falling global scrap prices but are not likely to witness a sharp fall amid robust domestic demand. Notably, Turkey’s imported scrap prices have come down by $20-25 w-o-w in a recent deal.
This week, we haven’t noted any substantial offerings from the mills. But indicative offers were heard at $575-580/t, FoB for BF route billets.
SteelMint’s bi-weekly assessment for Indian billets (150*150mm, BF route, FoB East coast) is $565-570/t, down by $10-15, against last week.
On the other hand, mills broadly stayed focused on the domestic market. However, the market is posing a sinusoidal downward trend. During conversations with SteelMint, a state-owned mill’s official mentioned- ” Our focus is to cater the domestic market, even if it has seen a southward correction recently.” SteelMint’s billet Index, exw-Raipur dropped by INR 2,250/t ($30.7/t) w-o-w to INR 37,400/t ($511/t).
Leave a Reply