Posted on 20 Jan 2021
Certain traders are aggressively exporting Chinese billet, rebar and wire rod in Southeast Asia, Kallanish notes. They are offering and selling at prices below mills' export prices.
Indonesian 150mm square billet for March shipment is offered this week at $590/tonne cfr Manila for 3sp grade billet and at $595/t cfr for 5sp grade. This is $10/t lower from last Friday. "Traders are selling short or unloading long positions," a Manila trader says.
The Indonesian mill is also offering billet in Indonesia. "The local price of billet is still high," an Indonesian mill manager says. The Sulawesi-based mill offered him 5sp billet at $640/t cfr Jakarta on Monday this week.
Last week, a Tangshan-based trader sold 40,000 tonnes of Chinese 150mm alloy square bar (billet) at $590/t cfr Manila, when most offers exceeded $600/t cfr Manila. Vietnamese 150mm blast furnace billet is still high, at around $605/t cfr Manila, a trader reported on Tuesday.
Chinese traders are also active in Southeast Asian long product markets. A Chinese trader sold two parcels totalling 8,000t of rebar for May shipment late last week at $630-640/t cfr Singapore theoretical weight. The Chinese mill origin is not disclosed. Two popular Chinese mills were offering theoretical-weight rebar at significantly higher levels of $645/t fob and $660/t fob Singapore late last week. Freight for 10,000t cargoes from China to Singapore costs around $20/t.
"Chinese mills still have March shipment export cargoes; but some are checking their inventory levels to take into account the week-long Chinese New Year holiday next month," a Singapore trader says. In the market, traders are heard offering rebar for forward shipment in January 2022 at $560/t cfr Singapore. In Hong Kong, an offer for Chinese actual-weight rebar is heard at $630/t cfr, trading sources say.
Wire rod prices have similarly fallen in the Philippines. Some traders are currently short-selling at around $610/t cfr Manila for 6.5mm diameter wire rod from Tangshan. Last week, Tangshan material was offered and booked at $615-620/t cfr Manila. "The fob prices from the big [Chinese] mills are much higher," a trader notes.
Source:Kallanish
