Competition from Chinese billet importers drives Southeast Asian prices upward

Prices in Southeast Asia's steel billet market rose in the week to Friday November 22 as Chinese buyers continued to snap up material in the spot market, sources told Fastmarkets.

Over the past week, a Chinese trader reportedly booked 50,000 tonnes of Qatari billet at $418-425 per tonne cfr China, while Iranian billet was offered at $405-410 per tonne cfr China.
Billet prices in Jiangsu province, a major entry point for imported billet, were 3,640-3,680 yuan ($518-523) per tonne ex-works on November 22, according to a local billet trader.
The price spread between international and domestic prices equates to $34-37 per tonne after the 13% value-added tax and 2% import duty to sell the cargoes in the domestic market are taken into account.

At least 140,000 tonnes of billet from various...

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