Weekly: Global Billet Market Overview

This week, the global billet market was reported trade active, as China continued to book billets on the tapered drop in export offers from all the major billet exporting nations; Russia, India, and Iran. The country was noted to book approximately 110,000 MT billets, this week.

The drop was primarily due to the acute fall in global scrap prices which was strongly supported by the epidemic. The COVID-19 is gaining the outbreak intensity in all the major countries of the globe. The major disruptors of the global billet market like India and the Philippines have gone for partial and complete lockdown respectively.

On the contrary, China has started recovering from the epidemic. And, the resumption of approximately 70% of construction projects could drive the wave of billet imports in the country. Looking at the current situation, the marketers must be largely relying on China for business.

CIS-CIS billet export offers reported a sharp decline this week, in a recent deal to China from Russia. The billet export assessment from CIS nations is now at USD 355-365/MT, FoB Black Sea, down by USD 25 W-o-W. Also, the recent plunge in the exchange rate of Ruble against USD has resulted in a decline in Russian billet export prices. Few market participants also indicate that Russian billet export offers have dropped to USD 350/MT, FoB levels yesterday.

Iran- The increasing intensity of COVID-19 and ongoing new year holidays continued to dampen sentiments of Iran’s billet export market. The intensity of COVID-19 is increasing in the country with every passing day. Iran is now the third country after China and Italy with the greatest number of COVID-19 cases. The epidemic has distressed the nation’s steel market.

— SteelMint’s assessment for billet export offers from Iran is at USD 360-370/MT, FoB Iran, down USD 15/MT, against last week.

— Also, sources mentioned that Iranian mills will be having holidays on account of New Year (Nowruz) from 20-23 Mar’20. This is also likely to keep the trade on the lower side.

India- Indian origin billet for 30,000 MT quantity was heard to have booked to China at USD 400/MT, CFR for May’20 shipment. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the state-owned steel maker under the Ministry of Steel, has invited tender for the export of blooms of quantity 60,000 MT and 150*150mm size. The grades mentioned in the tender were 4SP, SAE 1008, and SAE 1018. The offer given by the bidder will have validity until 30 Mar’20.

— The tender due dates are as follows-

–  For 4SP grade: 24 Mar’20 by 12:00 hrs.

– For SAE grades: 24 Mar’20 by 14:00 hrs.

SE Asia – SteelMint’s assessment for SE Asia billet import at USD 380-390/MT CFR, down by USD 20, against last week.

— Following the global trend, the billet import offers in the SE Asia region have witnessed a drastic drop, this week. The drop-in offers were primarily due to the acute fall in global scrap prices which was strongly supported by the corona virus outbreak in the region.

–The domestic and export offers in/from Vietnam have witnessed an acute drop. Domestic billet offers were reported at USD 400/MT, CFR levels.

— After remaining stable for the consecutive weeks, SE Asia billet import offers dropped sharply amid the increasing intensity of the epidemic of COVID-19.

China- Unlike the rest of the world, the intensity of the COVID-19 is getting low in China and the steel market has started improving. Meanwhile, the domestic billet prices in China are at RMB 3,150/MT ex Tangshan, including VAT. In the current situation, the domestic billet could look reasonable to procure but it is worth noting that the shipments of the above-mentioned deals are scheduled from late Apr’20 onwards. And with the current improving rate of the domestic billet market of China, the current import deal is a wise move from the Chinese marketers.

Global billet price assessment:

Source: SteelMint Research