News Room - Steel Industry

Posted on 24 Feb 2022

Indian billets export trade silent on slow demand

The Indian billet exports market has remained subdued with limited deals seen since the last one week. SteelMint’s bi-weekly price assessment for Indian billets exports (150*150mm, 3SP/4SP, BOF route) stood at $650/t FOB on 23 Feb’22, stable w-o-w.

A couple of recently floated bloom export tenders by Indian mills were heard to have been cancelled amidst no active participation.

Action taken by local authorities of China on iron ore price speculation and recent geo-political crisis in CIS nation have left the market participants perplexed. Buyers are in a wait-and-watch mode to get more clarity before making any decision.

SHFE rebar futures down

According to data maintained with SteelMint, China’s SHFE rebar futures contract for May’22 delivery closed at RMB 4,786/t ($758/t) on 23 Feb’22, witnessing a w-o-w fall of RMB 46/t ($7/t). However, it witnessed a rise of RMB 52/t ($8/t) d-o-d.

SteelMint’s assessment of imported billets (150*150mm, 3SP) into China are at around $690-695/t, CFR China, stable, w-o-w.

Meanwhile, steel billets prices in China’s Tangshan fell by RMB 40/t ($6/t) to RMB 4,650/t ($736/t) on 23 Feb’22, inclusive of 13% VAT. However, the same remained unchanged, w-o-w.

• SE Asia imported billets offers increase: SteelMint’s assessment of imported billets (150*150mm, 3SP) into the Philippines currently stands at around $703/t, CFR Manila, up marginally by around $5/t, w-o-w.
• Egypt to implement new import rules from March: Egypt’s central bank governor has said that the new rules requiring importers to use letters of credit will be implemented in March. Banks have been instructed to only accept letters of credit from importers. Meanwhile, according to sources, an Egypt-based steel mill has put a pause on billets imports amid uncertainty over a change in its payment system for imported goods.

Outlook

On the back of higher domestic realisation, India’s billets export price expectations are likely to remain on the higher side. On the other hand, Egypt’s new payment policy and recent crisis in CIS nations are expected to inflate crude oil prices due to which shippers are also uncertain about the freight rates.

Source:SteelMint