Iranian billet export prices witnessed a sharp drop in recently concluded tenders by the country’s two leading steel exporting mills. The continuous falling scrap prices pulled the Iranian billet export prices. Imported scrap prices in Turkey have dropped again by $20/t yesterday, credible sources have reported to SteelMint.
The buyers across the globe are in a wait-and-watch mode until the Chinese New-Year holidays as they are anticipating prices to fall further.
Confirmed trades – Meanwhile, against the odds, two leading steel exporting mills- Chadormalu Mining and Industrial Company and Khouzestan Steel Company (KSC) managed to book 60,000 t billets. However, the bookings witnessed a price drop of $20-25 w-o-w.
According to SteelMint sources, KSC managed to achieve price levels of $540/t FoB for the Far East, while Chadormalu concluded the tender at $530-535/t, FoB.
SteelMint’s bi-weekly assessment for Iranian billets is $535-540/t, down by $20-25/t against last week.
Domestic billet trades at IME improve – On the other hand, the domestic billet demand saw a rebound this week. Around 107,000 billets were traded at the Iranian Mercantile Exchange (IME), at an average price of IRR 101,761/kg ($435/t). The offered quantity was 132,705 t.
However, the marketers are not considering this week’s IME trades as a demand rebound. Because for this week, IME price was a function of 75% of the CIS price. Generally, it is 80% of the CIS price. The Iranian Government did this to encourage buying and to raise the demand. Over the past two weeks, limited or negligible billets were reported having traded at the IME.
“Next week will be interesting to gauge the actual demand as people might have over-stocked owing to reduced prices”. SteelMint learned during conversations with market participants.
Steel exports fall by 17%, y-o-y during the first three quarters of the current Iranian year:
According to Financial Tribune’s latest release, Iranian steel exports (Semi-finished + Finished) during the first three quarters of the current Iranian year (20 Mar-20 Dec ’20) stood at 6.45 mn t, down by 17.18% y-o-y. Semi-finished steel made up 4.475 mn t of the total export volume, down by 12% y-o-y, while finished steel exports witnessed a drop of 27% y-o-y to reach 1.98 mn t. Billet and bloom exports recorded at 3.44 mn t were down by 2% y-o-y.
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