Iranian mills raise offers for upcoming billet export tenders

Iranian billet export prices saw a marginal increase against the backdrop of the recent uptrend in global trade. Although SteelMint did not witness any deals at the improved price levels, a few mills have, or are likely to float billet export tenders in the coming week, as per the Iranian calendar.

• Esfahan Steel Company (ESCO), one of Iran's leading steel exporters, has floated an export tender for 25,000 tonnes (t) of billets, as per sources. The shipment is likely to be scheduled for Sept'21.
  
  
• Iran's leading steel exporter, Khouzestan Steel Company (KSC), may float a tender for 30,000 t of billets in the coming week. However, the company recently sold 30,000 t of slabs through an export tender. According to sources, the company concluded the tender at $748/t, FoB Iran. The shipment schedule is for end-July, with a Far-East country as the likely destination.
  
  

SteelMint's export assessment for Iranian billets stood at $630-640/t, FoB, on 15 Jun'21.

On the other hand, buyers from Iran's traditional markets are in wait-and-watch mode amid the volatile Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) rebar market. After recording an upward trend for the last two weeks, the SHFE rebar Oct contracts rose by RMB 87/t ($14/t) on 17 June'21 to RMB 5,101/t ($793/t), after witnessing a fall of RMB 154/t ($24/t) on 16 June'21, as per data maintained with SteelMint.

Meanwhile, no domestic billet trade was recorded on the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) this week. It seems, higher offers on the IME have kept buyers on the sidelines. It may be noted that higher production costs (hike in iron ore and scrap prices) lifted domestic offers.

Iran's semi-finished steel production up in first two months: Meanwhile, the Iranian Steel Producers Association released the production statistics of the mills for the first two months of the current Iranian year (21 Mar'21-20 May'21). According to the report, production of billets/blooms registered a 17% y-o-y rise to 3.3 mn t, while slabs production were at 2.2 mn t, up by 13% y-o-y.