Indian Steel Mills Cheer on Active Billet Export Demand

Indian steel mills cheer on active demand from global market, SteelMint learned from market participants. Most of the large mills making billets from BF route are booked for Jan/Feb shipments.

Apart from rising export volumes, mills have been able to capitalize on rising global prices. It is to be noted that billet prices in global market have increased by USD 30-40/MT in last one month as a result of rising seaborne scrap prices.

Recent deals from a private mill have been heard at USD 415-420/MT FoB levels for Feb shipments. There are few tenders expiring next week, which will set the market direction further.

Factors driving billet demand globally:

1. Rising scrap prices globally and tight supply amid winters is lending support to billet prices and demand. Turkey imported scrap prices have surged by USD 40/MT M-o-M.

2. Active buying from China: Chinese traders have been very active buying billets in last few months as Chinese domestic prices remain relatively high against imported billets.

3. Falling billet supply from Iran is another factor which is supporting demand from other countries like India, Russia, Malaysia and Vietnam. Last week SteelMint reported that all major Iranian mills are booked for billet exports till Jan’20. Thus mills are lower allocations for billet exports this month.

Indian billet export shipments

According to bulk movement data maintained with SteelMint, Indian bulk billet & bloom exports were recorded at 143,600 MT in Nov'19. Major exporters were JSPL, SAIL, JSW Steel and Vizag Steel.

Billet deals reported from India this week

1. SAIL had booked two parcels of 105mm and 125*125 mm each in the beginning of the week at around USD 402-403/MT and USD 409-410/MT FOB levels respectively

2. RINL's billet export tender was concluded at USD 406-408/MT FoB levels

3. JSPL alone sold over 100,000 MT in last few days for February shipment

4. A slab deal of 20,000 MT reported from India to Taiwan at USD 410/MT CFR levels for Jan shipment