The availability of significant volumes of lower-priced induction furnace (IF) steel billet in the Philippines import market has led to a cooling of interest in higher-priced blast furnace (BF) billet, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday July 2.
IF billet from Thailand was heard sold at $665 per tonne cfr Manila earlier this week, with an offer for Vietnam-origin material heard later at $663 per tonne cfr.
By Friday, sources said that IF billet from Malaysia of 5sp quality was available for as little as $655 per tonne cfr.
The high availability of IF billet in the export market, partly due to poor steel demand in key supplier countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia and India, was appealing to Philippines buyers who had seen their local rebar prices decline in recent weeks, sources said.
Meanwhile, BF billet was heard offered at $680-685 per tonne cfr Manila from Indonesia for 5sp grade, while Vietnamese 5sp BF material was offered at $680-690 per tonne cfr. But sources said that the lower prices were available only on negotiation.
Bids for standard 5sp BF and electric-arc furnace (EAF) billet were heard at $660-670 per tonne cfr Manila over the week.
A deal was rumored at $675 per tonne cfr Manila for Vietnamese 5sp billet this week but could not be confirmed at the time of publication.
Fastmarkets’ daily price assessment for steel billet, import, cfr Manila, based on 120-150mm standard BF and EAF 5sp billet, was $670-675 per tonne on Friday. This was unchanged day on day, but down by $5 per tonne week on week from $675-680 per tonne.
“BF offers are still at $690 per tonne cfr Manila but, if IF billet can perform [the job] of the 5sp modified BF grade at a lower cost, then we might see a change in the buying practices of customers. If the gap between BF and IF billet is $30 per tonne, there will surely be a change,” a Philippines billet trader said.
“If the gap between IF and BF billet is only $5-7 per tonne in Southeast Asia, people will definitely buy BF material. But when it goes above $10-15 per tonne, that changes,” a South Asian billet trader said.
China market remains stable
Limited buying activity kept import billet prices to China largely flat over the past week amid slow long steel markets, hampered by adverse weather, sources said.
Offers to China for 3sp BF billet remained around $650 per tonne fob from Vietnam and Indonesia, which sources said would work out at $675-680 per tonne cfr China.
Offers for Indian IF billet were heard at $650 per tonne cfr China, while bids for such material were heard at $630-635 per tonne cfr.
Bids were heard at $660 per tonne cfr China, but buyers who were especially aggressive were heard to be able to accept $670-675 per tonne cfr.
A deal for Vietnamese BF billet of 150mm 3sp specification was heard at $642 per tonne fob over the week, which sources said would be around $670 per tonne cfr.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel billet, import, cfr China, was $665-675 per tonne on Friday, widening downward by $1 per tonne from $666-675 per tonne last week.
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