Steel billet prices in Southeast Asia jump despite slower Chinese buying

Offer prices for steel billet imported into Southeast Asia have risen sharply over the past week despite more stable prices for cargoes sold into China, market participants told Fastmarkets on Friday July 24.

Chinese steel mills have continued to procure imports of billet over the past week but, unlike the preceding seven days, sales prices have stopped rising and have instead settled into a stable pattern.
China was providing an outlet for billet sellers at prices comfortably above those in Southeast Asia, where mills had been forced to raise their bid prices earlier in the week. But offer prices remained too high for most buyers in the region, which meant that no new deals were closed in Southeast Asia.

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 $420 per tonne on July 24. This was unchanged...

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