Lower Bids Keep Iran Billet Export Offers Under Pressure

Lower bids from buyers continue to keep Iran billet export offers under pressure. For the consecutive week, the Iranian billet export market was noted to be actively functional over the marginal rise in the export offers.

KSC- one of the leading billet exporters of the country was noted to book 30,000 MT billets to SE Asia at USD 345-350/MT FoB Iran, and the shipment is scheduled for early Jun'20. The other billet export majors were also noted to be actively offering in the export market. ESCO and Chadormalu were among the few.

Another deal of 20,000 MT billets from the country was noted to conclude at USD 370/MT, CFR, China.

SteelMint assessment for billet export offers from Iran is at USD 350/MT, FoB Iran, stable against last week.

The lockdown has been lifted in Iran, post which the mills are enjoying trades in both the markets; domestic and export. However, the realizations are better in the domestic market. Yesterday; 29 Apr'20, 35,000 MT billets have been traded in the Iranian market with an average price of IRR 45730/kg. Pasargad, Chadormalu, and SKS were the major sellers reported, SteelMint learned from reliable trade sources.

The Iranian marketers are expecting enormous inflation in the near future and hence are trying to stock the billets to the maximum possible extent to convert the national currency into goods. However, the purchases are largely speculative, SteelMint learned from the market participant.

Iranian mills urge for relaxing export restrictions - Meanwhile, the country also wants to capitalize on the export market opportunities. In recent, the steel manufacturing association of Iran has written a letter to the Iranian Steel Ministry, mentioning a request for relaxing the current restriction on exports. In current guidelines, the mills mandatory have to allocate a certain percentage of their production for the domestic market, which varies from mill to mill depending upon the capacity of the mill. In the letter to the ministry, it was mentioned "if it were not for the regulatory and executive restrictions of the Market Regulation Headquarters and the Ministry of Silence," Iran's steel exports could range from USD 3.5 billion to about USD 5 billion. However, the response from the ministry is awaiting.