SE Asia: Billet import offers continue to rise despite trade silence

Trade silence continues in the SE Asian imported billet market due to the New Year holidays. Despite limited buying and trade silence, the offers are rising every week and have reached $600/t CFR levels this week. The buyers are anticipating a fall in prices as Chinese rebar futures are trending downwards. On the other hand, the flying global scrap prices have kept holding the billet prices at high levels.

The sluggish finished steel demand is discouraging buyers from booking. Also, in a few ASEAN nations, the rebar is reasonable than billets. For instance, the domestic rebar in Indonesia is offered at IDR 8000-8100/kg ($565-570/t) exw. On the other hand, the imported billet is at $580-585/t, CFR levels.

Russia may impose an export duty on billets and rebars: After the Russian government revealed its intent about imposing the export duty on billets and rebars, the import offers in ASEAN witnessed a steep rise, especially in the Philippines which is a predominant buyer of the Russian billets.

Deals & offers- 

CIS- Despite holidays, offers broadly remained stable and were reported at $575-585/t, FoB Black Sea.

India- By and large primary mills remained quiet and were seen catering to the domestic market. However, during our conversation with market participants, SteelMint learned that indicative billet export offers from India hovered between $580-600/t, FoB India. On the other hand, a couple of Western India based secondary mills reported having booked 11,000 t billets for an African destination at $545-550/, FoB India.

Iran- Iranian billet export prices hit an all-time high to reach $555/t FoB in a recent deal. Khouzestan Steel Company, Iran’s largest exporter concluded a deal for 30,000 t billets at $550-555/t, FoB Iran. SteelMint’s bi-weekly assessment for Iranian billets is $550-560/t, up by $25-30 w-o-w.

Vietnam- The BF billet export offers from the country reported stable at $570/t, FoB Vietnam levels.

This week, SteelMint assessment for billet import in SE Asia is $580-590/t CFR, up by $10-15 against last week.