SE Asia: Mills active in billets export, seal deals to China

South East Asia-based mills remained active in concluding billets export deals this week. Vietnam billets exports offers rose on improved Chinese buying. According to SteelMint sources, BF-route billet offers from the country are at $690/tonne (t), FOB Vietnam, up by $15/t on a weekly basis. IF-route billet export offers were heard at $685/t FOB levels. Also, a Vietnam-based mill concluded an export deal for 30,000 t of BF-route billets to China at around $710-715/t, CFR China.

A few deals of Indonesian-origin billets were also heard to have been concluded for China, but details could not be received till the time of publishing this report.

Hike in re-bar futures and steel production cuts supported buying interest for billets in China. According to data maintained with SteelMint, the Chinese rebar futures contract for Jan'22 delivery closed at RMB 5,706/t ($883/t) on 30 Sept'21, with a w-o-w increase of RMB 101/t ($16/t).

Imported billets demand in SE Asia subdued: The imported billets market in South East Asia remained subdued for yet another week. Rising Covid cases and lockdown restrictions in the Philippines continued to weigh on buying inquiries for imported billets. SteelMint's bi-weekly assessment of imported billets into the Philippines stands at $680-685/t, CFR Manila, down by $15/t, w-o-w.

Thailand's imported billet prices remained range-bound. Indicative imported billets offer into the country are hovering in the range of $700-710/t CFR, down around $10/t, w-o-w.