China-based steel traders have regained their appetite for steel billet imports following increases in their domestic steel markets over the last few days, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday June 11.
The most traded rebar and hot-rolled coil futures contracts on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed up by 3.74% and 3.13% respectively on Friday afternoon.
Fastmarkets' price assessment for
steel billet, import, cfr China was $680-700 per tonne on Friday, up $10-20 per tonne week on week from $670-680 per tonne.
Offers for Indonesia-origin blast furnace (BF) 3sp 150mm billet were heard at $710-720 per tonne cfr China in recent days, while Japanese 3sp billet offers rose to $720-730 per tonne cfr, sources said.
Buying interest was largely capped at $680 per tonne cfr over the week, but bid levels rose to around $695 per tonne cfr China for Vietnamese 3sp BF billet by the Friday, Fastmarkets heard.
One deal for 40,000 tonnes of Vietnam-origin 3sp billet was...