India bulk billet/bloom shipments in May'20 have registered a three folds rise on M-o-M basis. Indian bulk billet/bloom export shipments were recorded at 650,330 MT in May'20 against 214,570 MT in Apr'20. The steep rise in exports was primarily due to the active buying from China, which constitutes approximately 70% of India's billet/bloom exports.

Due to dull domestic demand, Indian mills upturned their interest towards exports, and since China was the only economy that was recovering from the pandemic, the enormous billet/blooms volumes got routed towards the country. Moreover, lower inventories resulted in a sharp hike in Chinese domestic billet prices, creating room for cost-effective imports.

Indian bulk billet & bloom exports in May'20

Quantity in MT

Source: SteeMint Research

Note: This data doesn't include the shipments from all Mumbai ports

Future outlook: India is likely to remain active in the export market until the domestic demand of the country gets recovered. Hence, in the coming weeks, India's billet/blooms exports are expected to witness an upward trend.

Also, Iran's presence in the export market may get low due to its stringent steel export guidelines, which limits the steel exports of the mills. However, there are some relaxations given to the Iranian mills in the latest steel export guidelines, now the mills can export up to 40% of their total production; earlier this figure was 25%. According to SteelMint analysis, this will pose an enormous opportunity for Indian billets/blooms to increase their market share in the global market.