SE Asia: Billet import offers stable; decent trade volumes this week

The southeast Asian billet import market was active this week after sluggish trade over the past two weeks.

Multiple bookings of over 100,000 t from Iran were concluded for different SE Asian destinations at an average price of $389/t, on a FoB Iran basis, trade sources told Steelmint.

Billet export offers from India were around $422-425/t CFR Thailand.

SteelMint assessed for billet offers in the SE Asia region at $420-430/t, CFR, unchanged from last week.

Billet export offers from Vietnam were at $410/t, FoB, for Oct'20 shipments, down by $5/t from last week.

The SE Asian countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia are attracting the Chinese buying interest amid rising offers from India supported by duty advantages over non-ASEAN countries. For instance, recently, China was reported to have booked around 50,000 t billets from Vietnam at $420-422/t, CFR. While for Indian billet, the Chinese bids are below $420/t, CFR, a trade source mentioned during a conversation with SteelMint.