Morning Brief: Chinese steel futures stall after three days decline

Chinese steel futures witnessed a marginal recovery yesterday, after seeing a sharp decline since the end of last week for three consecutive days. SHFE rebar Oct futures contract closed at RMB 5,610 ($873), up by RMB 14 ($2) d-o-d. With the Tangshan government imposing new rounds of sinter cuts in order to curb air pollution, futures have recovered a bit, latest market reports suggest.

On the other hand, Indian spot steel prices have witnessed a decline. SteelMint's daily billet index has been assessed at INR 42,800/t exw Raipur on 18 May '21, lower by INR 700 ($9.5) d-o-d in view of limited trades.

No fresh export bookings have been heard. However, most mills continue to actively seek export options for pellet, pig iron and billets, not withstanding the fact that availability of vessels to India continues to be tight as most vessels are avoiding Indian ports due to the raging pandemic.

PSU steel major Steel Authority of India (SAIL) had floated an HRC export tender from its Bokaro Steel Plant in Jharkhand last week for June-July '21 shipments. The quantity offered was 10,800 t. SteelMint learned from sources that the tender fetched bids around $850-860/t on FoB basis and hence was called off due to bid-offer disparity.