Posted on 03 Feb 2023
Sentiment has softened in the East Asian import market for rebar and wire rod in the past three days while offers are still firm, Kallanish notes. Buying interest is sparse in the market amid the tumbling steel futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange.
Offers are around $630/tonne cfr Manila for presumably position cargoes of Chinese blast furnace 6.5mm diameter wire rod, and at $650-660/t cfr for ASEAN-origin wire rod. “Traders could be selling short a little,” one Manila trader said on Thursday.
At the same time, regional ASEAN mills were offering directly earlier this week at higher levels. A Vietnamese blast furnace mill is offering wire rod at $660/t fob and an Indonesian mill at $645-650/t fob. Freight is around $20/t within the region. There have been no deals heard concluded this week. Kallanish assessed SAE 1008 6.5mm diameter wire rod on Thursday at $630-640/t cfr Manila, up $5 on week.
Similarly, regional mills are giving higher-priced offers for rebar. The Vietnamese mill is offering March shipments of actual-weight rebar at $680/t fob Dung Quat for the Hong Kong market. For theoretical-weight rebar, it is offering to Singapore at $660/t fob, and to the US at $670/t fob.
A Malaysian mill's offer for blast furnace theoretical-weight rebar was heard earlier this week at $650/t delivered to Singapore. Some say the mill is not offering to the market now but some hear its target offer price is $650/t fob. In Hong Kong, the Malaysian mill's offer is currently at $670/t cfr actual weight. Hong Kong buyers are keen to book but at under $660/t cfr, an importer says.
A 25,000-tonne cargo of theoretical-weight rebar was heard booked at $649/t cfr Singapore in late January. A Singapore trader believes it was for Middle Eastern material. "Buyers want to wait and see before buying at above $650/t cfr," he says. Kallanish assessed BS4449 500B 10-40mm diameter rebar at $640-650/t cfr Singapore theoretical weight, up $10 on-week.
"The Chinese rebar futures market is falling after the early rise post-holiday," a Shanghai trader says. The correction is due to concerns over the slow recovery of the downstream industry, he adds.
Source:Kallanish
