Posted on 25 Apr 2022
Regional billet importers in Southeast Asia are adopting a wait-and-see attitude in the falling market, Kallanish notes. The regional finished steel market is very sluggish. “It is an illiquid market environment,” a regional trader says. The current fasting month, the recent Thai Songkran holidays and Easter holidays in the Philippines have dampened regional buying activity.
In Manila, more billet import offers have fallen to under $800/t cfr. Vietnamese-origin120mm/130mm square 5sp EAF billet offers are prevailing at $785-795/tonne cfr Manila, Vietnamese sources say. Similar-size and grade Vietnamese induction furnace billet are offered at $775/t cfr. A Vietnamese mill is also offering blast furnace billet at $800/t cfr. Offers for various sources were $800-830/t cfr during the week of 4 April.
A supplier is currently offering Russian billet at $760-765/t cfr on the condition that the Philippine buyer is able to open the letter of credit. “The price is nice but how do they open LC?” a Manila trader says. The Philippine banks are shunning anything which has the “name of Russia,” he says. “There is zero business” for Russian billet, he adds.
Rerollers may not be able to touch Russian billet but these falling offer prices as well as China-diverted cargoes are causing market bearishness, the regional trader says. There is market chatter of a diverted cargo of 4sp 6.5% Mn billet at $760/t cfr Mn last week. Kallanish lowered its assessment for 5sp/ps or Q275 120/125/130mm square billet to $790-800/t cfr Manila, down $20 on week.
Meanwhile, a 42,000t cargo of 150mm 3sp Omani billet, originally destined for China, is on the way to Thailand. 20,000t of the cargo was booked on 21 April at $740/t cif. “I hear that this is the last vessel for this month, and it will arrive during the last week of April,” a Thai trader says. The remainder of the cargo is still available in the market. The Omani billet is widely believed to be actually Iranian material. “All cargoes on the boats/water are Iranian billet,” another says.
Meanwhile, 20,000t of 150mm commercial 3sp and 5sp grade Iranian billet was also booked on 21 April at $757/t cif Thailand. The cargo was booked at $695/t fob from a previous Iranian mill tender, Kallanish understands.
Source:Kallanish
