Iranian Mills keep Billet Export Offers Firm; Deals under Negotiation

This week, the Iranian billet market remained silent. However, the export offers from the country were reported stable. SteelMint's assessment for billet export offers from Iran is at around USD 390/MT, FoB Iran, majorly identical as last week.

KSC floats 30,000 MT bloom export tender - One of Iran's major steel mill has floated an export tender for 30,000 MT bloom for Apr'20 shipment. The tender is heard to have received bids at around USD 385/MT, FoB, however, the mill is eyeing levels of USD 385-390/MT, FoB Iran. The tender is still under negotiation, as per reliable sources reported to SteelMint.

In order to protect, the domestic currency from further weakening against US Dollar, the Iranian government has imposed the guidelines on steel mills to sell the billets primarily in the domestic market, due to which mills have limited allocations for the export market.

Also, the country is soon planning to implement INSTEX; Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges, which is a mechanism to facilitate non-USD transactions and non-SWIFT, in order to avoid breaking of U.S sanctions implementation. This news has managed to keep the export offers supported. During Nov'19, five European Union nations; Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, and Sweden have declared in a joint statement to join the INSTEX mechanism for trade with Iran.

Price assessment of USA origin scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20) is standing at around USD 275-280/MT CFR Turkey, down by USD 3/MT against price level reported last week closing.