Import prices for billet in Southeast Asia picked up some strength over the past week amid higher offers from China as a result of a recovery in its domestic market, while those for slab were flat again on thin trading.
BilletMetal Bulletin's assessment of import prices for billet in Southeast Asia was $540-545 per tonne cfr for the week ended Monday April 23, narrowing upward by $5 per tonne from a week earlier.Deals involving Russian and South Korean billet were concluded at $542-545 per tonne cfr to the Philippines, market participants said. Cargoes from Thailand were also heard to have been booked at $540 per tonne cfr late last week.Offers from the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Middle East, Vietnam, Thailand and South Korea were all around $545 per tonne cfr Southeast Asia in the past week, sources said.No bookings were made for Chinese cargoes because Southeast Asian buyers were not willing to accept the increasingly higher offers from China, which resulted from the country's China's strengthening domestic billet and rebar markets, participants...