China's barrage of steel billet buying slowed down on Tuesday September 14 after a sharp decline in the country's ferrous futures markets, sources have told Fastmarkets.
While the recent announcements of production cut in China
have badly hurt iron ore prices in the country, demand for billet has strengthened over the past week with buyers viewing the material as a ready replacement in their steelmaking processes.
Deals were heard closed in recent days for United Arab Emirates-origin 3sp billet at $716 per tonne cfr China for mid-December shipment, and for India-origin blast furnace (BF) billet at $720 per tonne cfr, sources said. These followed deals for
around 400,000 tonnes of imported material agreed last week.
But a Chinese buyer source said that workable prices for imports into the country fell to $705-710 per tonne cfr China on Tuesday when the most-traded January rebar futures contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) fell by 150 yuan ($23) per tonne day on day.
Fastmarkets' price assessment for steel billet, domestic, exw Tangshan, Northern...