Posted on 21 May 2021
The wire rod import market in ASEAN is falling after rising sharply last week, Kallanish notes. Regional buyers are absent amid the plummeting Chinese market.
“Chinese offers are coming back down to earth,” a Manila trader says. Fresh offers of Chinese wire rod are prevailing at $910-930/tonne cfr Manila, after touching $1,000/t cfr last week. "With the Chinese futures market tanking, buyers are not showing interest," he adds. “Anything above $800 is not acceptable now,” another says.
A Malaysian mill’s wire rod offer is heard at $780/t cfr Manila, down from $840/t cfr Manila early last week. A regional trader thinks no orders were confirmed at $780 and that the mill's new export quotes must have been lowered further on 20 May because of the continued weakness in China.
Certain Vietnamese and Indonesian blast furnace mills tagged their wire rod export offers for 6.5mm diameter at $895-915/t cfr Southeast Asia last week. A Chinese trading company is offering 5.5mm diameter wire rod from India at $850/t cfr Thailand this week, a Thai trader says. Kallanish lowered its SAE 1008 6.5mm diameter wire rod assessment to $770-775/t cfr Manila on Thursday, down $25 on-week.
Meanwhile, traders report that the regional downturn for billet continues. Indonesian blast furnace billet was booked at $740/t cfr Taiwan on 18 May, some trading sources report. Offers from the same Indonesian mill are currently at $740/t cfr China, down from $770/t cfr on 17 May, Chinese trading sources observe. Some regional traders say $740/t sounds too high. “I thought it would be closer to $720 by now," a Manila trader says. The same mill was offering billet at highs of $800-810/t cfr China only last week.
In China, domestic billet prices settled in Tangshan at CNY 5,150/t ($800/t) on 20 May. This is CNY 390/t ($61/t) lower than on 17 May.
Source:Kallanish
