Posted on 08 Dec 2025
Increased Chinese billets prices remained unattractive in ASEAN market last week, with buyers able to find low priced alternatives from Russia and Iran.
In China, trader offers for 3sp 150mm billet were at $437-440/tonne on Friday, up by $1.5/t week-on-week when the most traded May 2026 rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose by CNY 40/t ($5.7/t) on-week.
Meanwhile, bids from ASEAN markets could not follow the growth, remaining around $10/t lower than offers last week, according to Chinese billet traders.
"The appreciation of the Chinese yuan against the US dollar has been too rapid", one Chinese trader said on Friday, which is unfavourable for Chinese exports.
The price gap between buyers and sellers for Chinese billet is wide. Prevailing 5sp 150mm Chinese origin billet offered by traders were at around $460-465/t cfr Manila last Friday while billet buyers in ASEAN mostly aiming below $450/t cfr.
One mill in Northeast China said they could offer 5sp billet to $455-460/t cfr Manila on Friday but could not find a buyer.
In Manila, 5sp billet offers were at around $455/t cfr last Friday, from Russia and Vietnam. A deal of 26,000 tonnes of 5sp 125mm Russian billets were heard booked at around $450/t cfr last week but a trader said on Friday that the deal has not been finalised and is still under negotiation.
Kallanish assessed 5sp/ps or Q275 120/125/130mm square billet on Friday at $445-450/t cfr Manila, steady w-o-w.
In Indonesia, 5sp 150mm billets were offered at $455-460/t last week. "There is buying interest, but buyers are mostly aiming at below $450/t cfr." a Jakarta reroller says.
A trader reports hearing a deal for 40,000t of 5sp Iranian billets at $450/t cfr Jakarta port last week but Kallanish was unable to confirm this with other market sources.
Indonesia mill Dexin's offer for 3sp billet for March shipment dropped by $3/t day-on-day to $437/t on Friday last week but remained $5/t higher on-week after it sold large quantities of billet to the Turkish market at $432/t fob the week before.
Source:Kallanish
