Import prices for steel billet in Southeast Asia softened over the past week with more cargoes of cheaper Chinese product being offered to the region, while offers for slab in the wider region including East Asia are showing signs of declining.
BilletMetal Bulletin's assessment of import prices for billet in Southeast Asia was $560-570 per tonne cfr for the week ended Monday March 19, down $5 per tonne cfr from a week earlier.Buyers in the Philippines booked Chinese cargoes at $563-568 per tonne cfr, sources said. An order for billet from a major South Korean supplier was also heard to have been placed at around $550 per tonne fob to the Philippines, which is equivalent to around $560-570 per tonne cfr Manila.A cargo of Chinese materials was said to have been sold at $550 per tonne cfr to the Philippines, but this could not be confirmed and was excluded from Metal Bulletin's assessment.Indonesian buyers still did not make any bookings for a third consecutive week, because they could not agree to the offer prices due to Indonesia's persistently weak domestic rebar market.Not many cargoes were sold to Southeast Asia over the...