Weekly: Global billet market overview

This week, the global billet market witnessed decent trades with a rise in offers from all the billet exporting nations amid increased Chinese steel futures. Since from the past couple of weeks, steel futures in China were fluctuating, the buyers were bidding low and were primarily in a wait and watch mode, hence limited trades were witnessed in the global billet market, during the period. As per reports, yesterday, construction steel rebar futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose by 0.8%.

CIS- The billet export offers from the region were noted to witness a rise of $5/t, to reach $370-375/t, FoB Black Sea.

India- SteelMint's assessment for Indian billet (150*150mm) export stands at $380-385/t, FoB India.

* India was remarked active in the global billet market, almost after a couple of weeks. The country was reported to book approximately 70,000 t billets to China and the Middle East through tender.

* A government-owned mill had floated an export tender for 30,000 t billets (150*150mm, 3sp/4sp), the deal was reportedly concluded at $380-385/t FoB for mid-Jul '20 shipment. The tender was due early this week and the cargo is most likely to be shipped to Middle-East.

* A private Indian steel mill had invited the bids for the export of 30,000-40,000 t billets. According to sources, the tender got concluded at $400-405/t, CFR China.

Iran- SteelMint's assessment for billet export offer from Iran has increased by $5-10 w-o-w and is currently at $370-375/t FoB Iran.

* Iran billet export market witnessed less active week, as mills are firmly holding the offers at $370-380/t, FoB Iran, on some demand from SE Asian countries. Earlier this week, SteelMint reported KSC concluded 30,000t billet tender at $375-380/t, FoB Iran for China.

* Although, market participants believe that these price levels are now challenging to achieve, as buyers, especially from China are bidding at $360-365/t, on a FoB basis for the Iranian billets. Also, due to congestion at Chinese ports, the Iran-China freight has also increased and freight reached $30+ levels.

However, few reports have mentioned about a billet booking to SE Asia from Iran at $395-400/t, CFR, but SteelMint sources have denied about any such bookings.

* Trades in Iranian domestic billet market remains slow- Meanwhile, the IME (Iranian Mercantile Exchange; country's commodity trading platform) was also reported silent; in terms of billet trade, as mills have violated the government's price guidelines on Sunday (08 Jun'20), while Wednesday (17 Jun'20) was a national holiday. These two reasons have primarily led to week observing trade silence this week for billets.

PS: Steel commodities are generally traded on Sundays & Wednesdays of the week over IME.

Future outlook: Since the export and domestic billet market witnessed no trades during this week, mills are expected to make a downward correction in the offers, possibly by next week, as they won't get better realizations in the domestic market in the coming weeks.

SE Asia- SteelMint assessment for billet import in SE Asia have increased sharply and is at $405-415/t, CFR levels, up $5 against last week

* SE Asian billet import market was noted to witness limited trades, as the export offers from the major billet exporting nations were reported a marginal increase during this week amid increased steel futures in China. SteelMint assessment for billet import in SE Asia have increased sharply and is at $405-415/t, CFR levels, up $5 against last week. The offers in the region are mentioned as below-

* Meanwhile, the billet export offers from Vietnam was reported to book billets to China at $408/t, CFR. However, the quantity was not confirmed until the publishing time of this report. SteelMint assessment for billet export offers from Vietnam is at $408-410/t, FoB, identical as last week.

* Another deal of 30,000-40,000 t billets was reported in the Philippines, the country was noted to book around 30,000-40,000 t billets from Russia at $405/t, CFR Manila.

The deals noted by the SteelMint, during the week, in/from the SE Asian region are as below-

China- The domestic billet prices in China are at RMB 3,310/t ex Tangshan (including VAT), down RMB 10, against last week.

Global billet deals:

Global billet price assessment: