Weekly: Global Billet Market Overview

For the consecutive week, China managed to keep the global billet market active. This week, the country was noted to book approximately 70,000 MT billets from Russia and India.

Unlike other nations, China is the only economy, which is recovering from the pandemic. This is made all the major billet exporting nations combative for supplying the billets to China, as due to the pandemic, other billet consumers are largely lockdown. With the resumption of construction activities, trades have gained momentum in the country.

CIS- CIS billet export offers were reported to witness an acute decline this week, in a recent deal to China from Russia. The country was reported to book approximately 40,000 MT billets at USD 345/MT, FoB. And the shipment is scheduled by May'20, report says. The billet export assessment from CIS nations is at USD 340/MT, FoB Black Sea, down by USD 15-20/MT W-o-W.

Iran- Iranian mills are expected to float fresh offers by next week. Few traders were indicating Iran billet export offers at USD 350/MT, FoB levels. However, it could not be confirmed till the time of publishing this report.

-- Amid new year holidays (Nowruz) from 20-23 Mar'20, no active offers were witnessed from the Iranian mills. However, just before moving off for the holidays, the country did manage to book 30,000 MT billets to China at USD 395/MT, CFR.

-- During a conversation with the market participant, SteelMint learned, unlike Russian and other CIS mills, the Iranian mills are reluctant to sell at the low prices, as they have faced production loss and have pending bookings to supply. However, declining prices of scrap & billet remain a concern.

India- Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the state-owned steel maker under the Ministry of Steel, had invited tender a bloom export tender for 60,000 MT quantity, 150*150mm size, and the grades mentioned in the tender were 4SP, SAE 1008, and SAE 1018. According to SteelMint's reliable sources, the tender witnessed limited participation and tender was canceled. The company had also floated another export tender for 30,000 MT bloom (150*150 mm, 4 sp) which was due on 24 Mar'20, the result of this tender could not be confirmed till the time of publishing this report.

-- An Indian private billet export major was reported to book 30,000 MT billets to China. The deal value was reported to be around USD 395/MT, CFR and shipment is scheduled for Apr'20.

SE Asia - SteelMint's assessment for SE Asia billet import at USD 370-380/MT, down USD 10 against last week.

-- This week, billet import offers in the SE Asian region witnessed a further drop amid COVID-19 outbreak, supported by fallen global scrap prices. With every passing day, the intensity of the epidemic is getting stronger in the region which has persuaded a lockdown situation in almost all major countries like Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

-- Although, this week, billet offers from the Black Sea were noted to be at USD 380/MT, CFR Thailand. While that from India was reported to be USD 390/MT, CFR. Similar levels were reported for Indonesia too. However, no deal was reported.

-- This week, billet export offers from Vietnam were noted to be at USD 380/MT, FoB Vietnam.

-- On the contrary, Indonesia has not preferred to go for the lockdown. In recent reports, the Indonesian Chief Security Minister said, "lockdown was still not an option to contain the spread of Covid-19 in Indonesia, saying that the Indonesian Military and the National Police would start to get involved in enforcing physical distancing in public." The minister added a lockdown would endanger the livelihood of people working in some sectors, especially daily workers.

-- The acute fall in the global billet offers was expected to drive the billet imports in the county, but depreciating IDR; Indonesian Rupiah is making the buyers hesitant to go for an import purchase.

China- China continues importing billets from Russia and India. According to SteelMint's assessment, this week country was reported to book approximately 70,000 MT billets from both the countries; Russia and India.

-- Meanwhile, the domestic billet prices in China are at RMB 3110/MT ex Tangshan, including VAT, down RMB 40 against last week.

Global billet price assessment:

Source: SteelMint Research