Posted on 13 May 2022
Despite lowering their billet export offers, Indian mills are unable to fetch any firm bookings from African buyers. The upcoming elections in Kenya, coupled with sinking scrap offers amid cheaper Russian billet prices, have slowed bookings in Africa, sources inform Kallanish.
A recent RINL billet tender was also cancelled due to lower bids and buying interest. The highest bids for the tender were heard at $700/tonne fob India.
Quotes for India-origin 3SP/4SP re-rollable grade induction furnace billet have dropped by $30-40/t on-week to $720-725/t fob India, equating to $800-810/t cfr Kenya and Tanzania. Buyers, however, prefer to wait and watch, and expect offers to go down further to average out the costlier billet bought earlier. No bookings were heard concluding this week.
“Buyers have become opportunistic,” opines a trader active in Africa. “They booked billet at $900-920/t cfr Kenya in March/April and now, as the market is sliding down, they are looking to book billet at a much cheaper price to average out billet to roll rebar at a competitive price.”
Owing to prevailing downward sentiment in the construction industry, billet offers in the domestic market in India are also hovering low at $719/t ex-Mandi and $686/t ex-Raipur. Ingot – small-sized semi-finished – prices are noted at $686/t ex-Bhavnagar and $701/t ex-Mumbai.
“Buyers are in wait-and-watch mode and nothing much has been booked this week. Everyone is observing scrap prices and expecting to take any firm decision on billet booking only once scrap stabilises,” explains a mill source in Gujarat.
Likewise, Indian offers for pig iron have also dropped. Last week, an Indian producer was heard booking pig iron at $800/t cfr US, equating to $720-730/t fob India.
Source:Kallanish
