Indian mills continued to remain active in the billets exports market on rising inventories amid subdued domestic sales. Some primary mills are also heard to have raised allocations for billets and pig iron exports , because of limited deals in rebar exports.
State-owned steelmaker Vizag Steel floated four export tenders for billets and blooms for end-Aug shipments. The details of the tenders are given below:
As per trade sources, The Steel Authority of India (SAIL) is also planning to float a billets export tender very soon. A private Indian mill is also heard to be in negotiations for its 20,000-t billets export tender which is likely to be concluded for South East Asia.
Vessel freight rates have continued to remain on the higher side and were heard at around $60 for China and around $65-70/t for the Philippines.
SteelMint’s bi-weekly assessment for Indian billets (150*150mm, BF route, FoB east coast) was recorded at $600-605/t, FoB on 29 Jun’21.
Chinese domestic billet prices up, tracking futures: According to data maintained with SteelMint, the Shanghai Futures Exhange (SHFE) rebar futures Oct’21 contracts closed with a d-o-d rise of RMB 111/t ($17/t) to RMB 5,147/t. Following this, domestic billet prices in China also strengthened today to RMB 4,910/t ($760/t) in Tangshan, including 13% VAT.
Chinese bids for imported billets were witnessed at around $660/t CFR levels.
Indian domestic billet prices fall: Domestic prices continue to fall on declining steel margins and subdued finished long steel sales. SteelMint’s daily billet (IF-route) index was assessed at INR 40,600/t, exw-Raipur, on 29 Jun’21, declining by INR 700/t ($9) d-o-d.
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