SE Asia: Billet import prices remain stable

This week, the SE Asian billet import market was noted to have booked limited billets amid slow demand. While the billet import prices in the region were reported to be stable. The billet export offers from different countries for SE Asia are mentioned below-

This week's SteelMint assessment for billet import offers in the SE Asia region is at $400-410/t, CFR, down $5 against last week.

SE Asia Billet Exports

China books 60,000-70,000 t billets from Vietnam and Malaysia- Vietnam's Hoaphat was reported to have booked around 30,00-40,000 t billets for China, during the start of this week. According to sources reported to SteelMint, the deal value was noted to be at $410-415/t, CFR, and the shipment is scheduled for end-Aug'20. With this deal, the billet export offers from the country were noted a marginal increase against last week and is currently at $401/t, FoB, up $5-6 against last week.

While, Malaysia was also noted to have booked 30,000 t billets for China at similar price levels as that of Vietnam i.e. $410-415/t, CFR.

High domestic prices are driving the billet imports in China- The domestic billet prices in China are noted to be at RMB 3390/t ($484/t), ex-Tangshan, including 13% VAT. And Malaysian & Vietnamese imports in China don't fetch a 2% import tax, hence Chinese buyers are preferring importing billets over the domestic purchase.