Iran Billet Export Offers Fall Further Ahead New Year Holidays

Increasing intensity of COVID-19 and upcoming new year holidays continued to dampen sentiments of Iran's billet export market. SteelMint's assessment for billet export offers from Iran is at USD 375-385/MT, FoB Iran, down USD 5/MT, against last week.

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.

Both domestic and export billet markets of the country have negatively got encouraged due to the epidemic. This week, billet export offers from the country were noted to witness a further drop. However, the drop was marginal, as mills showed limited interest towards the bids which are below USD 375/MT, considering the limited export allocations because the majority of the mills have sizeable bookings for Mar'20.

Another factor that partly contributed to pulling down the offers was fallen global scrap prices. Turkish steel mills aren't seen booking scrap cargoes actively over weaker market sentiments in finished steel.

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 trades on the lower side.