India: SAIL Floats Export Tender for 18,900 MT Billets

Steel Authority of India - a government of India company has floated an export tender for prime mild steel non-alloy concast billets. The tender quantity is reported to be 18,900 MT. The cargo will be shipped from the Haldia port. The tender put up is for size 150*150mm offered from the IISCO Steel plant.

The material offered is 4SP / 5SP. It has the following specifications - C%: 0.17-0.23, Mn%: 0.6-1.0, S%: 0.05 Max, P%: 0.05 Max, Si%: 0.10-0.35 OR C%: 0.27-0.32, Mn%: 0.7-1.0, S%: 0.05 Max, P%: 0.05 Max, Si%: 0.10-0.35.

The said invitation bid service has been activated by SAIL for entry of data at 14:30:00 HRS [IST] of 30 Mar'20. The last date for the bid submission is 02 Apr'20 by 16:00:00 HRS [IST]. And the shipment is scheduled for 15 Jun'20.

Trades in the Indian domestic steel market has come close to a halt due to lockdown imposed by govt to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Thus, Indian mills are turning active for exports to clear their inventories, shared sources.

During last week, China was noted to book approximately 70,000 MT billets from Russia and India. This was the consecutive week when the country managed to keep the global billet market active.

Unlike other nations, China is the only economy, which is recovering from the pandemic. This is made all the major billet exporting nations combative for supplying the billets to China, as due to the pandemic, other billet consumers are largely lockdown. With the resumption of construction activities, trades have gained momentum in the country.

CIS billet export price assessment is at USD 340/MT, FoB Black Sea. While that for Iran is at USD 345-350/MT, FoB Iran.