Southeast Asia steel billet importers cautious amid continued price drop in China

Continued declines in the Chinese steel billet market have caused many Southeast Asian buyers to shy away from importing the semi-finished product this week, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday November 2.

Chinese billet import prices continued to crash on Monday and Tuesday, led by weakening ferrous futures markets across the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), together with growing volumes of iron ore port stocks and price cuts for domestic billet at some northern China mills.
Southeast Asia markets
With China halting its billet importing activity, key sellers have been forced to look for alternative buyers for their material.
Offers of new production Indonesia-origin 150mm 5sp blast furnace (BF) billet were last heard at $680 per tonne cfr Manila, while a major Vietnamese steelmaker has been offering 3sp BF billet at $670 per tonne fob but was more likely to sell material into its domestic market, which has recently rebounded.

India-origin 90mm BF billet was heard sold at $612 per tonne fob earlier this week, which sources said was likely to go to...

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