India: Steel billet export shipments fall over 10%, m-o-m, in August

India, a leading exporter of steel billet, recorded shipments at 130,000 tonnes (t) in August, an 11% m-o-m decline as against 140,000 t in July, as per customs data.

Nepal top importer

Nepal remained active in importing billets from India. Exports to Nepal witnessed a three-fold rise m-o-m at 60,000 t compared to 20,000 t in July.

Kenya and Italy were the other top importers with 20,000 t each. However, exports to Italy witnessed a sharp fall of 71% m-o-m compared to 70,000 t in March.

Exports down in January-August

India's billet exports in January-August 2022 stood at 1.88 mnt, a sharp y-o-y drop of 57% compared to 4.37 mnt in the same period last year.

Factors weighing down billet export bookings:

• Bid-offer disparities: Higher bids for steel billets in the domestic market (than those from the key importing nations like China and South East Asia) kept export bookings low. Almost no firm bids for imported billets were heard from these countries which kept trades low.
  
  
• Cost-effective offers from CIS: Russian billet (130x130mm, 3SP) export offers fell to $545/t FOB Black Sea in mid-July from $550/t FOB in mid-June.
  
  
• Higher realisations in domestic steel market: SteelMint's BF-route rebar price assessment rose to INR 59,000/t ($740/t) exy-Mumbai in mid-July from INR 58,800/t ($737/t) exy-Mumbai in mid-June. Thus, higher domestic finished long steel prices kept price expectations on the higher side even for billet export bookings. Indian mills were not ready to reduce billet offers in view of high input costs.
  
  

Outlook

The Indian billet export market is expected to remain sluggish in the days to come as BF-grade steel mills are concerned about lowering their export prices owing to high input costs. Also, prevailing weak-end user demand and subdued finished steel sentiments in the key importing nations may also keep the export market subdued, SteelMint notes.