Nepal Mills holds fresh Bookings on Falling Indian Domestic Prices

A slump in Indian domestic billet prices has constraint Nepalese Re-rollers to hold back fresh Billet purchases in anticipation of further fall in prices. As per SteelMint assessment, Indian domestic billet offers fell by INR 1,000-1,500/MT (USD 15-23) and export offers by about USD 15-20/MT.

The exporters based in Kolkata mentioned that there are no major billet export deals for Nepal at the reduced price of USD 540-545/MT ex-mill, Durgapur. As per market participants, small lots of billet have been sold previous week at around USD 542-545/MT ex-mill, however, currently the buying interest is limited and which is nearly USD 530/MT ex-mill.

The participants also stated, "as the monsoon season started, most of the buyers in Nepal have limited their purchase orders and only placing orders if necessary".

Wire rod producers who largely exports to Nepal also gave a similar statement. As per medium mills in Durgapur the latest offers for commercial grade wire rod (5.5mm) down by about USD 10/MT to USD 610-615/MT which is equivalent to USD 635-640/MT CFR Raxaul Border (Nepal). According to them, buyers are in the mode of wait and watch currently and not showing interest at present rates.

SteelMint learned that offers through large producers for low carbon Wire rod also have reduced by USD 5-10/MT and the latest price assessed at USD 670-675/MT CFR Raxaul Border (Nepal). Prior to this during May'18, deals for a couple of rakes for Wire rod by JSPL heard at around USD 675-680/MT CFR Nepal.

Nepal's billet imports fall, although finished steel imports surge

Nepal's Billet import from India slump by 15% in its monthly import figures. As per custom data managed by SteelMint stats, Nepal imported about 87,256 MT Billets in May'18 (15th Apr to 14th May) as against 102,529 MT in Apr'18 (15th Mar to 14th Apr); fall by 14.94% M-o-M.

However, the country's finished long steel imports from India rose to 6 month's high. As per data, Nepal has imported about 34,385 MT of finished long steel in May'18 (15th Apr to 14th May) which is higher from last 6 months. Earlier, highest imports were recorded in Oct'17 at 46,300 MT.

Under finish long steel imports during May'18, Rebar contributed a major proportion of 26,821 MT followed by structures at 6,922 MT & Wire rod at 642 MT.