Buyers attracted by lower steel billet offers to Southeast Asia

The cost of steel billet imported into Southeast Asia continued to decline over the past week, with sellers able to attract some buyers with lower offer prices, market participants told Fastmarkets on Tuesday February 9.

Billet consumers in Southeast Asia have been largely absent from the market in recent weeks, but the most recent drop in offer prices has stimulated greater interest on the buy side ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday.
Chinese traders were offered Indonesian blast furnace (BF) billet at $532-535 per tonne fob on February 5, which is roughly equivalent to $550 per tonne cfr Manila for 5sp material, sources said. That was down from the mill's previous offer level of $542 per tonne fob on February 3.

Offers dropped further when traders were heard offering 125mm-long 5sp-grade billet from Russia's Far East at $535 per tonne cfr Manila over the weekend, and a deal for material...

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