Posted on 06 May 2022
East Asian long product import markets are quiet amid bearish buyer sentiment, Kallanish notes. Participants including traders are also just returning from the Labour Day and Eid holidays earlier this week.
Malaysian theoretical-weight rebar is offered at $830/tonne cfr Singapore this week, down $10-15/t from transactions in mid-April. A trader reports hearing rebar from Oman offered last week at $820/t cfr Singapore but says that offers are sparse this week. “Buyers are waiting. They think that prices will come down,” he comments.
A Chinese trader is offering theoretical-weight rebar at $835/t cfr Singapore but there is no buying interest. “We have not been able to sell to Singapore for a long time,” he says. Kallanish assessed BS4449 500B 10-40mm diameter rebar at $825/t cfr Singapore theoretical weight, $2.5 lower on-week.
In Hong Kong, a popular Chinese mill is offering actual-weight rebar at $840-845/t cfr, but there are no takers, a local trader says. The market is quiet with no recent transactions, a Hong Kong buyer says. He last heard a 10,000-tonne Middle East-origin position lot of actual weight rebar offered at a negotiable $825/t cfr. This could be part of a trader’s position cargo for probably 50,000t of Saudi rebar, the trader says. “The offer for 10,000t is only part of it; there will be more to come,” he observes.
Meanwhile, offers for 6.5mm diameter blast furnace SAE 1008 wire rod from within Southeast Asia are at $810-815/t cfr Manila, down from $815/t cfr last week. Chinese-origin wire rod, also SAE 1006 grade, is currently offered at $830/t cfr, a trader says. “The market is quiet as the Philippine presidential elections will be held this coming Monday,” he adds. Another hears of Indian-origin induction furnace wire rod being offered at $840/t cfr. Indian steel offers have recently been absent from the region.
"We should expect more Indian rebar, wire rod and billet export offers in June-August," a Singapore trader opines. Construction steel demand goes down because it is the monsoon season in India. "The Indian mills don’t have the US and Europe markets [to sell to], so they are back to Asia," a regional trader notes.
Kallanish assessed SAE 1008 6.5mm diameter wire rod on Thursday at $810/t cfr Manila, down $2.5 on-week.
Source:Kallanish
