The South East Asian imported billets market remained bearish, influenced by the volatile Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) rebar futures. Buying indications point to a further drop in prices by $20-30/tonne week-on-week (w-o-w) to $660/t CFR. However, on 28 May’21, the futures settled with a rise of RMB 116/t ($18/t) on a day-on-day (d-o-d) basis at RMB 4,933/t ($775/t), showing signs of a rebound. But, it will be too early to predict the market trend, as buyers across the globe are in a wait-and-watch mode.
Meanwhile, the Philippines booked sizeable volumes of billets from Vietnam. Post-this deal, the prices were heard touching $660/t CFR.
Deals and offers
Russia: No substantial offerings were heard from the Russian mills amidst volatile futures. A SteelMint source said: “Russian mills are also waiting for the market to stabilise.”
However, the Black Sea billet offers were at around $660/t, FoB.
Vietnam’s billet export prices fall in recent deal: The country reportedly sold around 15,000 t of billets to the Philippines at $660/t, CFR. Blast-furnace- route billet export offers from Vietnam fell sharply to $650/t, CFR from $760/t, FoB, seen in the last week.
Thailand’s imported billets market stable: Imported billets offers in Thailand are learned to be stable at $700/t, CFR. The country’s billet imports saw a marginal rise of 2% year-on-year (y-o-y) during Jan-Apr ’21 to 1.25 mn t from 1.22 mn tin the year-ago period. Oman, Japan, Russia, and India were the leading exporters during this period . According to data maintained with SteelMint, imports from Japan and Iran witnessed a sizeable drop of 32% and 43% respectively.
Indonesia’s billet imports fall 19% y-o-y in Q1: Indonesia’s billet imports during Jan-Mar’21 dropped by 19% y-o-y to 1 mn t from 1.2 mn t in the same period last year. India, Oman, Russia, and the UAE were the predominant exporters during the period under consideration. The decline in exports was due to preference for domestic billets over imports.
Leave a Reply