Daily Steel News - 26 Mar 09

Billet import prices rise in SE Asia
Offer prices of billet imports to Southeast Asia have risen by $10-20/tonne cfr since a week ago. Russian and Ukrainian billet offers are now prevailing at $360-370/t cfr, while those from the region are higher priced. Mills from Taiwan are aiming for an export price of $370/t fob, up from $350/t fob 2-3 weeks ago. A Taipei trader explains that a recent hike in domestic scrap prices and the strengthening of the Taiwan dollar against its US counterpart are the main reasons for higher-priced offers from Taiwan. Malaysian mills are indicating an offer price of $390/t fob. Around 25,000 tonnes of Black Sea billet for end-April
shipment was booked last week at $360/t cfr Philippines, traders tell SBB. "Buyers do not feel that any price increase can be sustained because demand for long products is very weak," a trader in Singapore notes.

Vietnam raises import duty on billet, longs and coils
Vietnam's ministry of finance on 25 March decided to raise the import duty on billet from 5% to 8% and on construction long products from 12% to 15%. The import duty on cold rolled coil will be raised from 7% to 8%, and that on coated steel products from 12% to 13%. The higher duties will take ffect from 1 April. Local billet producers were lobbying for a higher duty of around 15% on billet, as previously reported by SBB. But the rerolling mills, which lack upstream steelmaking facilities, wanted the 5% import duty on billet to remain unchanged. "The ministry of finance made its decision based on the interests of both the producers and the end-users," a Hanoi-based steel source tell SBB. Vietnam is dependent on foreign billet. Last year, it imported nearly 2.2m tonnes of billet. There is no change in the duty for imports from Asean countries under the Asean Free Trade Area. The import duty on billet from Asean countries is 5% and 0% for long products with equal or more than 40% content from an Asean country.

Scrap prices edge higher on more Turkish buying
For HMS 1&2 80:20 prices for latest transactions are $225-230/tonne cfr from the EU and the US, a $5-10/t increase. HMS 1&2 70:30 prices are quoted between $220-222/t cfr, which is $15-17/t higher than last week. A3 grade scrap prices rose by $20/t to $225-230/t cfr from the CIS. Turkish producers say that the reasons of recent activities are rebar purchases from Dubai and Egypt and the fact that scrap stocks are about to be exhausted. One Turkish player says that these transactions will bring more price increases in short term, but this will be just a spike and will not last long. After these trades Turkish mills will withdraw from the market again.In the domestic market prices have stabilised after three decreases in March. Currently local scrap prices are between TL 300-360/t ($181-217/t), SBB learns.