Despite still limited trading activity in the import billet market in Southeast Asia, market sources have agreed that buyers will have to accept higher prices in the coming few weeks.
New offers for SP billet in the Philippines were reported at $545-550/mt CFR early in the week, while on Thursday some sources indicated that the minimum offers for ex-ASEAN BF billet have increased to $552-553/mt CFR. “I think $550/mt CFR will be done in the new trades,” one trader from Singapore said. “Buyers will have to step up buying at higher prices as the window is closing for March [deliveries],” another source said. As for 3SP billet, offers have also been high, at $540-550/mt CFR Manila.
In Indonesia, the latest deal for 30,000 mt of 1SP billet was at $525/mt CFR before the holidays and the current offers for 3SP material are at $520-525/mt CFR. However, this new level is mainly indicative as not many offers are present in the market. “Buyers are still waiting for a clearer market trend to understand what [origin] to buy,” a trader in Bangkok said. “Russia is all going to Taiwan, Turkey, etc, so there are minimal cheap sources,” another trader commented.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported billet in Southeast Asia (excluding Iranian, Russian and IF billets) has settled at $540/mt CFR, versus $530-535/mt CFR last week.