Rising steel billet import prices in China and last week's elimination of the country's import tax on billet are set to provide a large boost for exporters of the semi-finished product, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday May 5.
Until May 1, Chinese importers had to pay a 2% import duty on billet produced outside the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). This meant that steelmakers from outside of the Asean region had to price their product 2% below Asean producers to remain competitive in the Chinese market.Asean billet was then sold at $675-685 per tonne cfr China, while a deal for non-Asean billet was next heard concluded at $670-675 per tonne cfr last week. And 30,000 tonnes of Indian BF billet was heard sold to traders at $628 per tonne fob on Tuesday, which sources said would be around $675-680 per tonne cfr China after freight...