Weekly round-up: Global billets market subdued on China impact

The global billets market remained less active this week amid a decline in Chinese steel futures which resulted in a drop in bids for imported billets. On the other hand, rising Covid cases in the Philippines kept the market silent in South East Asia.
The highlights of this week are as follows:

Indian billet export market slows down: The Indian billet export market slowed down on lower bids from China this week. The recent Indian billet export tenders floated by a couple of primary mills fetched dull response and trading sources were skeptical that mills may not be ready to conclude tenders at the bids received.

• An Indian State-owned steelmaker had floated an export tender for 60,000 tonnes (t) of steel blooms of size 150x150mm and 3sp/4sp grade for Sept shipment.
  
  
• Another State-owned steelmaker floated a spot sale export tender for 18,900 t of steel blooms (125x125mm, 4sp/5sp grade). The tender floated was against 100% advance payment terms with the due date being 3 Aug'21.
  
  

According to sources, the tenders were cancelled due to bid-offer disparities. The cancellation of floated tenders could also be because of strong fluctuations in the Chinese steel futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE).

Iran's domestic billet prices rise in recent IME deal: Iran, one of the largest billet exporters in the world, has remained quiet since the past couple of weeks in the global billets market owing to power outages in the country, impacting production levels of mills. Owing to the recent Eid holidays and electricity shortage, billets trading on the Iranian Mercantile Exchange (IME) remained limited. However, production restrictions faced by steel and cement companies on electricity consumption eased last week which resulted in a slight improvement in the domestic trade. On the IME, around 107,500 tonnes (t) of billets were traded on 3 Aug'21 at an average sales price of 140,237 Iranian Rial, according to data received by SteelMint.

Vietnam mills active in exports: Vietnam's BF-route billet export offers were heard at around $685-690/t FoB Vietnam. Also, an IF (induction furnace)-route billet export deal from Vietnam was heard to be concluded at $695/t CFR China scheduled for Sep'21 shipments.

Indonesian mills active in exports: There were unconfirmed reports of 10,000-15,000 t of Indonesia-origin billets being booked for China. Interestingly, billet exports from Indonesia increased sharply to 1.58 mn t in H1CY'21 from 0.41 mn t in H1CY'20. Exports to China doubled to 0.88 mn t in H1CY'21 from 0.4 mn t in H1CY'20. Other major importers of billets from Indonesia were Taiwan and the Philippines at 0.17 and 0.10 mn t respectively.

Thailand's billet import prices stable: Indicative imported billet offers into Thailand are hovering in the range of $715/t CFR from various origins.

China's domestic billet prices fall RMB 190/t w-o-w: Steel billet prices in China's Tangshan fell sharply by RMB 190/t ($29/t) w-o-w. Domestic billet prices stood at RMB 5,080/t ($783/t), inclusive of 13% VAT. According to data maintained with SteelMint, the Chinese rebar futures contract for Oct'21 delivery closed at RMB 5,379/t, down by RMB 358/t ($55/t) w-o-w.