Chinese billet buyers hesitate to raise prices further after latest booking rally

Steel billet exporters are finding resistance in making sales to the Chinese market at higher prices over recent days following another barrage of bookings at the start of the week, market participants told Fastmarkets on Friday September 17.

Several hundred thousand tonnes of imported billet were heard sold to China through the weekend and into the beginning of the week before activity paused on Tuesday, sources said.
"By my count, it looks like China has booked 600,000 tonnes of steel billet since the start of September at least," a major Singaporean trading source told Fastmarkets.
Deals for Indonesia-origin 3sp 150mm blast furnace (BF) billet were heard at $715 per tonne cfr China in the week, while Qatar-origin billet was sold at $715 per tonne cfr in the week, sources said.
That is in addition to deals at $716 per tonne cfr China for billet from the United Arab Emirates and $720 per tonne cfr from India, as reported by Fastmarkets on Tuesday.

A deal for Turkey-origin electric arc furnace (EAF) billet was rumored to have been done at $620 per tonne fob Turkey or $710-715 per tonne...

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