Posted on 13 Oct 2025
The ASEAN billet market opened with little interest after the end of China’s Golden Week holiday mostly at pre-holiday levels, Kallanish notes.
In Jakarta, Chinese 5sp 150mm square billet for mid-November shipment is offered at $455/tonne cfr, similar to the $453-455/t cfr Jakarta quoted on 30 September.
Leading Indonesian steel mill Dexin Steel was offering 3sp 150mm billet for December-shipment at $435/t fob, unchanged from 29 September.
An offer for Dexin 3sp 150mm billet was widely circulated on 9 October at $447/t cfr Vietnam. Freight between Indonesia and Vietnam costs $15-20/t depending on the shipment quantity.
“The offer was not a hot topic,” a mill manager says on the lower-than-expected cfr offer price. Demand is currently weak in Vietnam “because we just faced the two biggest storms [typhoons] in a while. The steel market “stopped completely” in northern Vietnam “but should be changing to a recovery phase soon”.
In addition to poor demand, import demand is being adversely impacted by competitively priced billet. A leading Vietnamese mill is heard to be offering at the equivalent of $445/t ex-works.
In the Philippines, bids are lower than the offers for 5sp 150mm billet at $450-455/t cfr Manila, Singapore and Manila-based market sources say.
But some Chinese billet traders remained cautious after the national holiday because it was hard for them to make new deals unless they short the market, exporting sources say. Some 5sp 150mm Chinese billet offers were quoted at $445/t cfr Manila last Friday, but bids received were still $5/t below at $440/t cfr. This offer was already $5/t lower than the prevailing market level in Manila.
Traders who went short on 5sp billet at $455/t cfr Manila before the holiday covered their position by buying back billet at $435/t fob China last week.
Last Friday, 3sp 150mm billet was priced at around $430/t, down by $5/t compared with the previous Friday before the holiday (26 September). At the same time, the most traded, January 2026 rebar contact on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell by CNY 11/t ($1.5/t).
Kallanish assessed 5sp/ps or Q275 120/125/130mm square billet on Friday at $455/t cfr Manila, $6.5/t lower on-week.
Source:Kallanish
