- Limited importers are active on approaching Lunar New Year holidays.
- Absence of trades on weak sentiment of finished products.
The imported billet offers in Southeast Asia remained stable this week. Billet players are inactive due to ongoing Lunar New Year holidays, additionally they are pressurized due to weak sentiment of finished products. Notably, absence of trades in the region is seen amid dull buying interest in the global market.
The offers for the 5 SP grade imported billet remained constant at $545-555/tonnes (t) CFR Manila w-o-w. However, the bids for 5 SP were reduced by $5/t w-o-w, standing at around $530-540/t CFR on 2 February.
Significantly, Chinese billet prices inched down by RMB 100/t ($14/t) w-o-w to RMB 3,550/t ($500/t) on 2 February. Billet prices has declined following the downtrend of rebar futures and low consumption of raw material during holidays. Meanwhile, Chinese SHFE rebar futures decreased by RMB 142/t (20/t) w-o-w to RMB 3,825/t ($539/t) today.
However, Turkiye’s imported scrap prices have increased this week. According to BigMint, HMS 1&2 (80:20) prices from the US stood at $421/t CFR, inched up of $4/t w-o-w.
Market highlights:
- Thailand’s imported billet offers remain range-bound: Imported billet offers from the ASEAN region into Thailand remained range-bound at $545-555/t CFR Thailand.
- Indonesian steelmaker Dexin Steel has hiked its offering by $5/t w-o-w, currently at $535/t FOB, as per sources. Buying activities are soothing ahead of Chinese New Year holiday and most mills are trading far away from the region in the countries like Turkey and Latin America.