Iran: Steel billets export trade muted amid bid-offer disparities

Iran's steel billets export market remained silent this week due to bid-offer disparities in recently floated tenders and falling global scrap prices.

Around 90,000 tonnes (t) of steel billets were offered in the export market last week by Iranian steel mills to get better price clarity. However, tenders were heard to be cancelled owing to the mismatch between sellers' and buyers' price levels.

Meanwhile, one deal of around 10-15,000 t was heard concluded at $530/t FOB by South Kaveh Steel Company (SKS). The destination could not be confirmed at the time of publishing this insight.

Falling global scrap prices and low buying interest pulled down billet export prices, SteelMint figured out. Turkiye's imported scrap prices edged down by around $2/t w-o-w.

SteelMint's latest assessment of Iran's billet (3SP) export prices stood at around $530/t FOB on 11 April, a significant fall by $30/t, w-o-w.

Domestic billet prices drop sharply post-holidays

Steel billet prices witnessed a sharp fall after Nowruz holidays due to pressure from the Iranian government to lower prices in the domestic market, sources informed. The fall in exchange rate also weighed on prices.

Domestic trade on IME falls w-o-w

Domestic billet sales on the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) saw a decrease of 23% w-o-w. Average sales price inched down by 5% w-o-w.

Around 79,430 t of billets were traded on the IME in the week under review at an average sales price of 179,815 Rial. Last week, about 103,330 t of billets were traded at an average sales price of 188,715 Rial.

Outlook

Iran's steel billet export prices are expected to see a downtrend amid a fall in global scrap prices and bid-offer disparities in recently floated export tenders.