Posted on 01 Apr 2020
Chinese buyers are bidding higher for prompt shipments of imported billet, Kallanish notes. Indian billet offered this week in a tender will head there also, traders say.
A Vietnamese mill manager reports receiving a bid for April shipment Monday at $380/tonne cfr China. But he adds that he is unable to supply a quick shipment cargo. A Vietnamese blast furnace mill was offering this week a 40,000-tonne billet cargo at $380/t fob or $390/t cfr China. It could have sold that cargo at $380/t cfr China if it was a prompt shipment, Vietnamese market sources say. Regional traders heard that the same Vietnamese mill recently sold a May shipment cargo at $375/t cfr China.
Chinese import buying of semis was significant in recent weeks. They are doing this solely for arbitrage purposes, trading sources say. Several regional trading sources heard that the semis sold to China totalled 1.5-2 million tonnes and comprise mostly CIS billet. But Chinese trading sources think that this quantity is too large.
Some trading sources say buying interest in China appears to be slackening this week. “No one knows where the bottom is,” a regional trader says Wednesday. “They could be in wait-and-watch mode now,” he adds. Turkish billet for May shipment is currently offered at $375/t cfr China. Another says: "This is so because for the last two days, the steel futures are not favourable." Last week, offers for Russian billet were prevailing at $370/t cfr China and some traders report hearing that there was a deal for Ukrainian billet struck at around $360/t cfr.
Meanwhile, a trader has clinched 30,000t of billet for May shipment in Vizag’s export tender this week at $356/t fob. The cargo is destined for China, trading sources say. If so, the cargo’s price would be around $376/t cfr China. “Only China is buying now, demand is gone elsewhere,” a trader notes.
Source:Kallanish
