Iran: Billets export market remains active; domestic trade drops

Iran, one of the leading billets exporters with annual overseas sales of around 4.5 mn t, kept its offers stable for this week. An export deal for 30,000 tonnes (t) of billets was heard getting concluded recently via a tender at around $635-640/t FOB, sources informed SteelMint.

Prices have edged up in the recent deal. SteelMint's bi-weekly assessment of Iranian billets (150mm, 3SP/4SP) exports prices stood at $630-633/t FOB on 28 Sept'21.

According to data maintained with SteelMint, China's rebar futures contract for Jan'22 delivery at the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) closed on 29 Sept'21 at RMB 5,657/t ($875/t), witnessing an increase of RMB 23/t ($3.5/t), d-o-d.

Hike in re-bar futures seems to have supported Iranian billet export prices. In a recent development, Iran's working group has approved the extension of export licenses for long steel products for another two months (till 1 Dec'21), as per the latest information available on Chilan Online.

Domestic billet trade on IME falls despite drop in prices: Domestic billet sales on the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) decreased sharply by around 50% w-o-w with 2% drop in the average price. Around 50,725 t of billets were traded in the last one week at an average sales price of 125,873 Rial on IME, as per data maintained by SteelMint.

Last week, around 96,236 t of billets were traded at an average sales price of 128,023 Rial on the IME.

Market highlights:

• Mobarakeh Steel Company (MSC), one of Iran's largest steel producers, recorded sales revenue of 66,085 billion Tomans, up 142% on the year compared to the same period of last year, as per Chilan reports.
  
  
• MSC has made an exclusive offer for hot rolling sheet (HRS) for the first time on Iran's commodity exchange, according to reports by Chilan Online.
  
  
• The offer has been made in order to stabilise the demand-supply dynamics for cold-rolled players who have been offering their products on the commodity exchange.