Iranian billets export prices hit 8-month low in recent deal

Iranian billet export prices have declined sharply amid lower bids, following a recent deal concluded towards the latter part of last week.

An Iranian mill concluded an export deal for 40,000 tonnes (t) of steel billets at $565/t FOB, for Dec'21 shipment.

SteelMint's latest assessment of Iranian billets (3 SP) decreased by around $25/t w-o-w to $570/t FOB.

More importantly, Iranian billet export prices have fallen to an eight-month low, with similar price levels last seen in Apr'21, as per SteelMint's data.

Billet export prices hit by lower bids

Lower bids and limited inquiries have weighed down global billet prices.

Notably, the Chinese rebar futures contract, for May'22 delivery, on the Shanghai Futures Exchange settled at RMB 4,288/t ($673/t), a d-o-d drop of RMB 18/t ($3/t) on 2 Dec'21 according to data maintained with SteelMint.

Meanwhile, domestic billet sales on the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) fell sharply by 57% w-o-w, along with a 1% decline in the average price.

Around 41,260 t of billets were traded on IME in a one-week period at an average sales price of 130,629 Rial. Last week, around 96,100 t of billets were traded on IME at an average sales price of 132,214 Rial.

Overall, trade on IME have fallen by 66% in the last one month.

Iranian slab export prices head south on falling global flat prices

Iran's slab export prices have fallen sharply by around $50/t compared to the last-concluded tender earlier this month, as per SteelMint reports. Declining global HRC prices are weighing on slab export prices.

40,000 t of steel slabs were concluded at $588/t on FOB basis, in a deal concluded by an Iranian mill.

Outlook

Iranian billet and slab export prices would likely remain pressurised on lower bids and fall in global HRC prices.