Posted on 08 Mar 2021
The Asian billet market has risen further, Kallanish notes. Chinese import buying took place at higher levels as suppliers hiked export offers to the region.
ASEAN-origin 150mm square billet to China concluded at $610-615/tonne cfr in the earlier part of last week, Chinese trading sources say. They heard blast furnace billet from Vietnam booked at around $610/t cfr China and also from Indonesia at $615/t cfr on 3 March. These are equivalent to $590-595/t fob Vietnam/Indonesia.
But the regional billet market could be entering a cooling-off period because of the drop in Chinese steel futures on Friday. Chinese spot prices fell by CNY 100/t, a Chinese trader reports. "China will not take billet at $615/t today," a regional trader observes. Chinese buyers’ price idea has fallen to below $600/t, he adds. But others were less pessimistic. One Vietnamese trader says: “$600 is too cheap.”
In Manila, the billet import market was quiet with no recent deals heard. Suppliers continued to raise offer prices and offers were mostly prevailing at $610-620/t cfr Manila during the week ending 5 March, compared to the previous week's $600-605/t cfr. These include Vietnamese and Japanese EAF billet offered respectively at $610-615/t cfr Manila and $620/t cfr Manila.
An offer for Russian 125mm billet was raised to $615/t cfr, up $10/t on-week. Indian billet is offered at $620/t cfr. On 5 March, Kallanish raised its 5sp/ps or Q275 120/125/130mm square billet assessment to $600/t cfr Manila, up $5 on-week.
Source:Kallanish
