Posted on 21 Dec 2020
The Southeast Asian billet import market resumed its frantic acceleration during the past week, Kallanish notes. Suppliers were quick to raise offer prices whereas most buyers were slow to accept paying up.
A Russian mill was offering commercial grade billet at $575/t cfr Taiwan and $585/t cfr Manila around 17 December. This led to a Philippine order for less than 10,000t for the 130mm billet for February shipment at $580/t cfr Manila.
There were also lower-priced offers during the week. EAF and induction furnace billet from Malaysia and Vietnam were offered on 17 December at $565/t cfr Manila. But trading sources in Manila say that buyers were not keen to accept this level. "I have been facing resistance," a trader says.
Regional blast furnace mills have also hiked their billet export prices. A Vietnamese mill has set its export prices at $565/t fob and an Indonesian mill is offering billet at $580-585/t cfr Indonesia. On 11 December, Vietnamese blast furnace billet offered at $540/t fob had been regarded as high-priced. The Russian mill which is offering commercial-grade billet at $575/t cfr Taiwan, was offering material at $550-560/t cfr Taiwan a week ago.
New offers appear to be gravitating towards the 580 cfr level, which sellers blame on higher costs an importer notes. Because new projects "are very few," he says that he is unsure "how much appetite is left to consume at 580 & above."
Meanwhile, Chinese traders reported that they heard of suppliers keen to export Chinese alloy square bar (billet) at $545/t cfr Philippines. But this has likely changed now that Chinese domestic billet prices have rallied in recent days, the traders note. A regional trader who had heard of the offers said they were not booked because "buyers are savvy enough" to know the prices were "too cheap to be true."
On 18 December, Kallanish raised its 5sp/ps or Q275 120/125/130mm square billet assessment to $565-580/t cfr Manila, up $40/t on-week.
Source:Kallanish
