Thailand's billet imports increase 19% in Jan-Jul'21

Thailand registered a 19.31% y-o-y rise in steel billet import volumes in the first seven months of CY'21 (Jan-Jul'21). The volumes stood at 2.10 million tonnes (mn t) in Jan-Jul'21 as against 1.76 mn t in Jan-Jul'20, according to customs data compiled by SteelMint.

Imports of the material in Jul'21 stood at 0.25 mn t, down by 24% y-o-y as compared to 0.33 mn t in Jul'20.

Oman, Japan retain top exporters' spot

Oman and Japan continued to be the largest exporters of steel billets to Thailand followed by India in Jan-Jul'21.

Oman supplied the highest volume of steel billets to Thailand at 0.83 mn t in Jan-Jul'21, registering a 51% y-o-y increase as compared to 0.55 mn t in Jan-Jul'20.

Japan, too, retained its second-largest exporter position with 0.36 mn t followed by India with 0.24 mn t in the period under review. However, billet exports from Japan to Thailand witnessed a decline of 10% while those from India were down by 11% y-o-y in Jan-Jul'21.

Thailand's billet imports drop 27% in Jul'21 m-o-m

Thailand's billet imports in Jul'21 amounted to 0.25 mn t, a decline of 27% m-o-m as against 0.35 mn t in Jun'21.

At a m-o-m level, Oman and Japan were the largest exporters of steel billets to Thailand and supplied similar volumes of 0.08 mn t in Jul'21. This was followed by Russia and the UAE with 0.03 mn t each. Exports from India remained nil in Jul'21.

Price trends

According to SteelMint's bi-weekly assessment, indicative imported billet offers into Thailand were hovering in the range of $660-665/t CFR from various origins last week.