Global Billet Market Overview: Week 32, 2019

This week global billet market remained sluggish. The market is under pressure from trade war between China and the US.

Iran billet export offers soften on limited trades- After observing deals in past few weeks, this week left the Iranian billet market sentiments softened. SteelMint’s current Iran’s billet export assessment stands at USD 385-390/MT, FoB, down by USD 5/MT against last week’s assessment of USD 390-395/MT, FoB.

However, one of the prime billet producers in Iran has floated a billet export tender. The company is expecting to get around USD 385-390/MT, FoB for the deal. The tender is expected to get concluded by end of this week.

Billet export offers from CIS decline by USD 5- This week billet export assessment from CIS nations stands at USD 410-415/MT, FoB Black Sea, down USD 5/MT against last week. The market sentiments were reported weak in the region.

South East Asia: The SE Asian billet import market remained silent this week. No deals were reported this week. The market was quite due to weaker sentiments.. This week South East Asia’s billet import assessment stands at around at USD 440-445/MT, CFR, down USD 5/MT against last week.

Vietnam billet offers inch down- This week Vietnam’s billet offers are at USD 452/MT, CFR Manila, down USD 6/MT against last week. The trade sentiments were reported weak in the region.

India billet export price assessment down by USD 10-15: In recent, a BILLET export tender reported to have received highest bid at around USD 395-400/MT FOB, down by USD 10-15/MT from the previous tender which expired on 2 Aug'19. Company is likely to cancel the tender on low participation.

China domestic billet fall by RMB 120/MT: This week Chinese domestic billet prices in Tangshan settled at RMB 3,500/MT, down RMB 120 against last week. This week, billet trade sentiments in China were reported weak.

Since July, billet imports have increased in Eastern China which has impacted domestic trade in the region. It is learnt that imported billets are mainly from Iran, Qatar and Azerbaijan.

In July, the amount arrived was about 200,000 MT, including about 130,000 MT of slabs and about 70,000 MT of square billets. In August, it is estimated that the monthly arrival will be more than 200,000 MT, with billet and slab accounting for half respectively. It is hunched that some shipments are yet to schedule and could arrive in the coming time.

Affected by the fluctuation of the exchange rate, the current cost of imported steel billets from Iran is about RMB 3,590/MT, which is costlier than prevailing domestic offers in China.