Posted on 07 Jan 2022
The Southeast Asian import markets for wire rod reopened for the new year with buyers showing caution and sparse interest, Kallanish notes. In China, speculative importers returned to book regional billet early this week.
Offers for 6.5mm diameter blast furnace low-carbon wire rod from Malaysia and Indonesia for March/April shipment have softened in the Philippines. Offers are $15-25/tonne lower than at end-December at around $715/t cfr Manila.
Buyers are still indicating interest at below $700/t cfr, a Manila trader says. Buyers are bidding down offers mainly due to the wide gap of around $80/t between wire rod and billet, he notes. Another says that steel demand is now very low because many stores have closed in Manila due to a surge in Covid cases.
In Thailand, an order for 5,000t of 6.5mm blast furnace wire rod from Malaysia for February shipment recently concluded at $705/t cif Bangkok. A Thai trader says this is not a good price for the buyer because of the large billet-wire rod price spread. He points out that an Iranian mill is still offering billet at $607/t cif Thailand.
Kallanish assessed SAE 1008 6.5mm diameter wire rod on Thursday at $715/t cfr Manila, down $5 on-week.
Earlier this week, Chinese buyers placed orders for March-shipments of Indonesian-origin blast furnace billet. Chinese trading sources mostly heard around 60,000t of 150mm 3sp billet was booked around 4 January at $615/t cfr Caofeidan, China. Speculators are probably behind the buying, Chinese trading sources say. “The local billet market is going up,” a Shanghai trader notes. But he thinks that the approach of the lunar new year will rein in more of such buying.
Some traders also heard that the Indonesian mill, which is located at Sulawesi, sold a total of 90,000t this week. This likely included bookings at $615/t cfr to an Indonesian distributor for 3sp billet and a mill in East Java for wire-rod making grade billet. The mill has opened its offer on 6 January at $620/t cfr Jakarta for 3sp billet for March shipment, a Jakarta importer says. “If it is for a small tonnage, then February shipment is still okay,” he adds.
Source:Kallanish
