Prices in Southeast Asia's steel billet market climbed over the past week due to robust demand from Chinese importers.
Market participants said China's appetite for imported billet returned after domestic steel prices increased in response to costlier iron ore and production cuts in the country's steelmaking hub of Tangshan.
Fastmarkets' daily price assessment for
steel billet, import, cfr Southeast Asia which mainly looks at 120-150mm 5sp grade billet sold into the Philippines, was $395-400 per tonne on Friday June 5, unchanged from a day earlier but $5-10 per tonne higher than the $390 per tonne assessed
a week earlier.
During the week, up to 50,000 tonnes of Iranian billet were sold at $385 per tonne cfr Thailand. Iranian prices are excluded from Fastmarkets' assessment because they fall below mainstream levels due to the United States' sanctions against Iran.
Billet from the Commonwealth of...