Southeast Asia billet prices continue upward momentum, suppliers raise offers again

The market for cargoes of steel billet imported to Southeast Asia expanded again over the past week, with suppliers raising their offers, influenced by higher finished steel prices in China.

China's domestic rebar prices jumped to a two-year high on Tuesday thanks to strong construction demand and falling steel stock levels in the country.
Chinese traders have slowed down their purchases of steel billet in recent days, but last week concluded orders for induction furnace billet from Vietnam at $472 per tonne cfr and for blast furnace billet from Indonesia at $475 per tonne cfr.
Last week's deals led to major suppliers to raise their offer prices to Southeast Asia, insisting that consumers in the region match prices paid by China if they wanted to obtain any material.

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 $475-480 per tonne cfr...

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