Nepal: Mills book hefty volumes of sponge iron, billets from India on falling prices

Nepal mills placed orders for a total of around 40,000-42,000 tonnes (t) of blast furnace (BF)-route billets and sponge iron from India this week.

• Sponge iron
  
  

Over 26,000 t of sponge iron (including of pellet based DRI and lumps based DRI) deals were confirmed this week and the average deal price was assessed at around $465/t LTW eastern India, equivalent to $485/t CPT Nepal (FeM 80%, lumps 70%, fines 30%). These prices are lower by $5/t as against SteelMint's previous week assessment.

• Billets
  
  

About 16,000-17,000 t of BF-route billets export deals were reported at around $630-640/t CPT Nepal, down by $10/t, w-o-w.

Also, offers of IF-route billets dropped by $10/t to around $600-605/t exw-Durgapur, equivalent to $625-630/t CPT Nepal.

• Wire rods
  
  

After sufficient orders placed for Indonesian wire rods, hardly any fresh deal was heard this week and if sources are to be believed, one parcel of wire rod orders to Indonesia has been delivered to Haldia Port while remaining lots are expected to be shipped in September.

Current offers of Indonesian BF-route wire rods are assessed at around $625/t CFR Haldia, equivalent to $665-670/t CPT Nepal. Due to hefty export duties on Indian wire rods, the land-locked nation is more inclined towards other ocean suppliers.

• Domestic rebar offers in Nepal stable
  
  

Domestic rebar offers in Nepal continued to be stable for the fifth consecutive week on account of slow demand and volatile prices in the Indian market.

Current offers for 12mm rebars are at around NPR 92,000/t ($720/t) on an ex-works basis, excluding VAT.