Iranian mills likely to resume billets export tenders as power curbs worry minimises

Iranian mills remained less active in the semi-finished steel export market. No firm offer or trade was heard this week. A trader was heard to have concluded a 25,000 t billets export parcel at $570/t FoB Iran levels recently. However, this could not be confirmed at the time of publishing this report.

"Iranian steel mills are giving mixed response on power curbs issue. However, one of the traders said that the problem may get sorted in the next 10 days", an Iranian source told SteelMint.

SteelMint's assessment of Iran's billets export (3SP) prices stood stable w-o-w at $558/t FOB on 01 Feb'21.

Billets prices fall, rebar prices stable: Billets (IF-grade) prices in Iran witnessed a downtrend due to limited demand, while rebar prices were stable amidst heavy snowfall and cold weather in the region, sources informed SteelMint.

Domestic billets trade increases further on IME: Domestic billets sales on the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) increased by 7% w-o-w. The average sales price was also up by 2% w-o-w.

Around 128,660 t of billets were traded on IME in the week ending 03 Feb'22 at an average sales price of 130,872 Rial/t. Last week, about 120,240 t of billets were traded on IME at an average price of 128,831 Rial/t.

It has been observed that post the revocation of the limitations, sales on IME have increased. Now, even traders are allowed to buy billets on the exchange and, therefore, demand has increased.

Outlook: Market sources expect Iranian mills to resume billets export offers in the next 7-10 days on improving weather conditions and the possibility of easing of power curbs.