Offer prices for imported billet in Southeast Asia have increased this week, following the rebound in China, though buyers have been opposing the trend, especially after signing a few deals at low price levels last week.
Last week, a deal for 5SP 150 mm billet was rumored to have been done to the Philippines at $450/mt CFR. The information has not been confirmed by the time of publication, but market participants agree that this level is accurate for the past week unlike another rumour at $20/mt higher, which has been assessed as “sellers’ speculation, as even for a higher grade it was impossible”, a trader commented. Offers for Asian origin 5SP billet have mainly been at $465-470/mt CFR. “Chinese traders are trying to push up billet prices. But there is very limited buying activity by Philippine buyers,” a local importer said.
In Thailand, late last week or early this week a deal for 3SP billet of Chinese origin was done at $440/mt CFR. However, by now offers to Thai buyers are already close to $460/mt CFR. Some sources said that prices have increased too much for customers and that bids are the same and are unlikely to rebound at least in the near term.
Similar offers for Chinese 3SP billet at $460/mt CFR have been heard in Indonesia too, but an offer from the local producer is a little lower, at $455/mt CFR, sources said.
As reported previously, last week deals for Chinese 3SP were at $430-435/mt CFR, but offers increased to $440/mt CFR on Tuesday and rose further to $450-460/mt CFR on Thursday, following the trend of stronger futures prices in China.
Today, rebar futures at Shanghai Futures Exchange surged by 3.11 percent.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported billet in Southeast Asia has settled at $450-460/mt CFR, up by $5/mt over the past week.