Posted on 21 Feb 2022
Suppliers continue to press for higher prices for exports in Southeast Asia, Kallanish notes. Offers to the region are around $20/tonne higher week-on-week. However, the import market in China has quietened down.
April-shipment offers for Russian 125mm 5sp billet were prevailing at $720/t cfr Manila, local trading sources said on Friday. Another Russian mill’s offer for 130mm 5sp billet, also for April shipment, was also at $720/t cfr the day before. It attracted a counterbid at $705/t cfr, which was rejected. That offer was no longer available on Friday because the supplier would have offered the cargo elsewhere, Kallanish understands.
“The market is firm with offers mostly at $720-725/t cfr for blast and electric arc furnace billet from India, Russia and elsewhere,” a Manila trader says. He heard deals taking place for Vietnamese induction furnace billet and Russian billet at $705-710/t cfr earlier in the week. Most Philippine buyers are bidding at $700/t cfr Manila, another says. Kallanish assessed 5sp/ps or Q275 120/125/130mm square billet on Friday at $700-710/t cfr Manila, up $22.5 on week.
In Thailand, a trader heard that an Indonesian mill wants to export blast furnace billet at $700-710/t cif Thailand. “But we have not heard of offers from the mill because they know that the Thai market cannot pay up,” he says. This same mill is offering this size and grade billet at $715/t cif Jakarta. “There are probably no takers,” a Jakarta mill manager observed on Friday.
A Vietnamese trader confirms Vietnamese induction furnace billet was booked at $705-710/t cfr Manila during the week. Another Vietnamese trader says: "These export prices are reasonable when compared to the Vietnamese market. The local market is good now.” He adds that Vietnamese blast furnace mills are targeting to export at $690/t fob – around $720/t cfr China.
The market in China was quiet last week because of the downward price correction. “The local Chinese market is much lower than offers now,” a Chinese trader says. “Offers are around $50/t higher than local prices. I do not know how to deal with such billet,” he adds.
Source:Kallanish
