Prices in Southeast Asia's steel billet market tumbled over the past week due to weaker demand from Chinese importers, sources said.
Market participants attributed the reduction in Chinese demand to the weaker-than-expected economic stimulus announced at the country's recent annual parliamentary meeting, while adverse weather conditions are
weighing on domestic rebar demand in eastern China, a major destination for imported billet.
Nonetheless, some sources heard a major Chinese trading company booked more than 100,000 tonnes of imported billet in the second half of the week, although no further information was available at the time of writing.
Fastmarkets' daily price assessment for
steel billet, import, cfr Southeast Asia, which mainly looks at 120-150mm 5sp billet sold into the Philippines, was $390 per tonne on May 29, narrowing upward by $5 per tonne from $385-390 per tonne yesterday. The price was
down $7 per tonne at the high end from $390-397 per tonne a week earlier.
During the week,...