Thailand’s Billet Import Falls Dramatically by 58% in CY17

Thailand, which is a net importer of steel, has registered a significant drop in its billet imports in CY17 against previous year. In 2017 (from Jan to Dec), Thailand imported 1.92 MnT of billet, a decline of 58% from 4.58 MnT in 2016.

If we analyze Thailand’s country wise billet imports, the volume of country’s billet import from China plummeted drastically from 2.1 MnT in 2016 to 0.09 MnT in 2017.

The key reason that can be attributed to fall in country’s billet imports from China is the absence of Chinese material from export market this year amid capacity cuts and strong domestic demand.

While the percentage share of China in Thailand’s billet import have plunged from 44% in CY16 to just 5% in CY17, percentage share of Iran in country’s billet import increased from 11% to 43% y-o-y basis. Iran has become quite active in the steel export market over the past one year. According to country’s customs data, its steel exports have registered a growth of 26% y-o-y basis during first nine months of Persian year (21 Mar-21 Dec’17).

As per market sources, Thailand is encouraging domestic steel production in in order to cut down its dependency on imports. It has been observed from Thailand’s customs data that country’s scrap imports have surged significantly by about 65% y-o-y in CY17 thus implying increased use of scrap as a raw material for its in-house steel production.

Fall in slab imports

Thailand usually imports its slab requirement majorly from, Brazil, Indonesia, and Japan. However, its slab import in CY17 from all the three countries has also registered a significant fall. In 2017, country has imported 0.11 MnT of slab from Brazil (fall of 45% y-o-y), 0.10 MnT from Indonesia (fall of 44% y-o-y), and 0.39 MnT from Japan (fall of 35% y-o-y).

Thailand’s major slab importer, Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) which used slabs to manufacture plates, had filed for bankruptcy in the year 2015. Due to this, company had not been operating in its full capacity since past two years, resulting in fall in country’s slab imports.