Asian billet prices continue to decline

Asian billet bids have eased slightly amid weak consumer demand in China. The cuts include both futures and spot prices. According to SteelOrbis, the weekly decline on FOB China terms as of March 5 was 1,14%. The decline of 1,14% was also recorded on a monthly basis, compared to February 5.

In the first decade of February, steel billet in the port of Tangshan was sold at $416/t Ex-Works, after which it rose to $425/t in the middle of the month. Then the market was again dominated by “bearish” trends.

Rollers have become more cautious in their purchasing. One of them told Kallanish that at the end of February he bought less billets than he sold finished products in order to reduce his existing stocks.

Billet stocks in Tangshan also fell by 60,8 thousand tons at the end of February, to 1,08 million tons, for the second week in a row.

At the beginning of this week, the mood in the Asian billet export market was bearish, with buyers taking a wait-and-see attitude in the hope of a new price reduction, despite the announced production cuts in China.

As previously reported, slab quotations in Black Sea ports increased by $10/t to $580-590/t FOB in the week of February 10-17, while in Japan they remained at $630/t FOB.

Recall that large volumes of slab supplies from India and China to Europe began in July-August 2022. At that time, Italy became the main importer. This happened after slabs from the Russian Federation were included in the eighth EU sanctions package.