After remaining quiet for more than a week, the Iranian billet exports market saw some transactions. Iranian billet export prices dropped further in a recent export deal concluded by a leading Iranian billet exporter, Chadormalu Mining and Industrial Company. According to SteelMint sources, the company sold 30,000 tonnes of billets at $630/t FoB. The shipment is likely to be delivered by the end of July’21.
On the other hand, several other mills adopted a wait-and-watch approach to get clarity on the dynamics.
A few sellers like Khouzestan Steel Company (KSC) had floated a tender for around 30,000 t of billets last week. The tender is still under negotiation, as the bid-offer gap is wide. Traders informed that the mill was targeting $640/t FoB.
Iran’s billet export prices moved down by $10/t against SteelMint’s last assessment of $640/t FoB published on 8 Jun’21.
Since last week, a few mills are testing the market at $640-650/t FoB Iran levels. However, they lose out in concluding any deals. The volatile Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) rebar futures market, supported by continuous rising freight has kept buyers in a wait-and-watch mode. The rebar futures market, however, continues to see an upward trend, since last week. But marketmen still believe that the futures market is yet to gain stability. According to data maintained with SteelMint, the SHFE rebar futures Oct’21 contracts on 10 June’21 settled with a day-on-day (d-o-d) rise of RMB 133/t ($21/t) to RMB 5,168/t ($808/t).
On the other hand, Iran’s physical markets are not rising parallel with the futures market amidst sluggish finished steel demand, leading to limited trade on the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME).
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