Limited offers and bullish sentiment resulted in import prices for steel billet in Southeast Asia rising further over the past week and those for slab in the wider region including East Asia to narrow upward.
BilletMetal Bulletin's assessment of import prices for billet in Southeast Asia was $560-575 per tonne cfr for the week ended Monday March 5, up $20 per tonne from a week earlier.Numerous deals involving cargoes mostly bound for the Philippines were concluded over the week. In contrast, no cargoes were booked by Indonesian consumers, who were still unwilling to agree to the higher offers. Indonesia's demand remained low amid weak sales in the domestic rebar market and the weakening of the rupiah against the dollar, trader and end-user sources said.At least four deals involving billet from the Commonwealth of Independent States and Thailand bound for the Philippines were concluded at $560-565 per tonne cfr, market participants said. Small shipments from Japan and South Korea changed hands at $565-568 per tonne cfr Manila. Middle Eastern cargoes commanded the week's highest transactions prices of $570-575...