Posted on 25 May 2023
Imported and local billet prices have softened in the United Arab Emirates and Oman amid low regional and global long steel demand. Re-rollers have shifted their procurement focus to Saudi Arabia due to fast delivery and discounted prices, Kallanish notes.
This week in UAE, local re-rollers have received regular rebar grade 130/150mm 3sp 9-12-meter-long billet offers from China at $525-535/tonne cfr UAE ports for June shipment, from Saudi Arabia at $515-520/t cpt for early/mid-June delivery and from Iran at $510-520/t delivered to buyer's yard for late-June shipment. Three re-rollers floated billet enquiries for a combined tonnage of 35,000 tonnes.
One re-roller committed to a deal with a Riyadh-based supplier for 3,000t of 130mm 3sp modified grade at $507/t delivered to its yard (see separate story).
A local UAE induction furnace-route mill is selling billet at $522-523/t ex-works. In contrast, others have stopped offering to adopt a wait-and-see policy until the market settles at higher tags.
Local HMS 80:20 grade scrap is pegging at AED 1,200-1,230/t ($327-335) delivered against cash payment. Local scrap generation has slowed owing to summer approaching, and sales dropped significantly due to low demand for local billet. The Indian Customs investigation on UAE-origin scrap has compelled UAE scrap exporters to divert their sales to Pakistan or export to India via Oman, with documents forged to show the latter as country of origin, sources say. Despite the UAE scrap export ban, shipments have been ongoing in containers.
Following the benchmark mill's nominal price reduction for June deliveries (see separate story), the UAE scrap and billet market is expected to gain momentum.
"The market is so quiet. We cannot compete against discounted imported billet quotes; moreover, Saudi billet supply is fast, with the most competitive tags nowadays," a merchant billet producer explains.
Omani electric arc furnace-route mills reduced their regular rebar grade billet offer to $525-530/t delivered to buyers' yards in UAE from last week's $530/t fob Oman for June deliveries.
Source:Kallanish
