Daily Steel news - 6 Apr 09

Billet prices rising despite weak fundamentals in SE Asia
Traders are surprised that billet import prices are firming quickly in southeast Asia because the finished product markets there are still weak. Traders tell Steel Business Briefing that recent bookings are not large volumes and are for quick shipments on a "need basis." While traders say that offer prices for Russian billet are prevailing at around $385/t cfr in the region including Thailand and the Philippines, there are higher-priced deals reported. Bookings in the Philippines for Taiwanese 5sp/ps billet were at $405/t cfr late last week after an earlier booking at $398/t cfr. Vanadium-added Russian origin billet was booked at $395/t cfr Taiwan around ten days ago. Russian commercial billet was heard booked at $390/t cfr Vietnam. Many traders are not confident that prices can move up much more and say that recent higher-priced bookings are by rerollers who need material urgently because they had stopped importing for some time. "I think that there will be great resistance at $410-420/t cfr," a trader in Singapore says. "It is confusing now. No one can afford to take risks because who knows how the market will move?" a Taipei trader asks. "The price will not be able to hold at much higher levels because there is no real demand," a trader in the Philippines notes. Taiwanese and Malaysian mills are aiming to export at $390/t fob. A Vietnamese importer, however, says that demand in the country will be better during this quarter as it is the seasonal period for higher bar consumption, adding that billet prices can move up "a little more."

Vietnam Steel Corp cuts domestic prices for bar and rod
Vietnam Steel Corp (VNsteel) reduced the domestic prices of its long products by VND 200,000-560,000/tone ($11-31/t) with effect from 1 April in order to make its prices more competitive, company sources tell Steel Business Briefing. The price of its wire rod products is now around VND 9.6m/t ($531/t) and that for debar VND 10.0-10.3m/t. "Wire rods from overseas are priced lower especially from Asean countries and demand in Vietnam has not been good," a source tells SBB. "But the market should improve in the near future because it is the seasonal construction period for private housing projects. Also, new government projects are expected to start from next month," he adds. VNsteel supplies around 24% of the domestic market for long products, SBB understands. The Vietnamese authorities recently raised the export duty on construction long products from 12% to 15%. However, the preferential duty on imports from Asean countries remains at 0%. (See separate report on Vietnam Steel Association's proposal to limit imports.)

Korean mill targets higher H-beam exports
The country's total H-beam export volume during the two months increased by 11% year-on-year to 158,400 t, Kosa notes. Surprisingly, Canada was the largest buyer taking 33,800 t, compared with last year's 2,760 t. "The volume (to Canada) was booked during November-December when the buying sentiment there was still good," a Korean trader in Seoul said. The second-largest export market was Saudi Arabia which bought 16,000 t. Korean traders are now eyeing large export volumes to Southeast Asia during the second half. SBB is told that traders are offering metric-sized H-beams to Southeast Asia
at around $500-540/t cfr, an increase of $20-30/t over the past two weeks. By contrast, the Korean domestic price for 600x300mm beams is KRW 880,000/t ($656/t). However, export prices are likely to be flat in Q2 in the region, one Korean trader believes. Korea's only other rolled H-beam producer is Dongkuk Steel Mill which produced nearly 1.1m t of beams last year and exported 157,000 t.

Daily Steel News - 3 Apr 09

Global billet prices up
Global billet prices have increased by US$60/ton to US$400/ton, but the slab market was still sluggish. On the other side, slab prices are being prevailing at US$340 to 360/ton in the market, continuing its downward trend amid low demand. Rising billet prices are supported by increasing demand. Actually, many countries have initialed some package to stimulate economic by pushing domestic demand. Therefore, the demand for construction steel has rebounded.

Daily Steel News - 1 Apr 09

Asian H-beam import prices slip on lower demand
The regional mills are exporting their imperial sized H-beams at $570-580/tonne cfr to Singapore and Malaysia, according to regional market sources. This compares with offer prices from these mills of $610-630/t cfr in the middle of March. Chinese metric-sized H-beams were last booked at $520/t cfr Singapore. The deal involved a few thousand tonnes and was concluded around two weeks ago, a trader reports. He is bullish that prices will soon rise because of the recent improvement in sentiment for scrap and billet.

62% Fe iron ore price at new low, says The Steel Index
The reference price for 62% Fe content iron ore fines dropped by 3% to $59.10/dry metric tonne CFR Tianjin port, China, which is a new low since these reference prices were first published in November 2008. The reference price for 58% Fe content fines also fell, by a smaller 0.8%, to $51.60/dry metric tonne CFR Tianjin port. Within these delivered prices, the freight cost for two of the three key iron ore routes are reported to have fallen, though there was a slight increase of 3% on the West Australia-China route.

Billet import prices could be stabilising in Asia
Southeast Asian traders believe that billet import prices are likely to stay at current levels, because demand for long products is still weak in the region. Transactions in the Philippines last week reached $380/tonne cfr for a Russian-origin cargo for April shipment and a Taiwanese-origin cargo at $390/t cfr. These involved 5,000t each. Taiwanese 3sp/ps billet was booked at $380/t cfr Vietnam a week ago. "Prices will be sustained and cannot move beyond $400/t cfr," a trader in the Philippines says. Offer prices were last at around $375-380/t cfr for Russian billet late last week but these offers are drying up. "Inventory levels are low among the rerollers, but where is the demand for bars?" a trader in Singapore asks Steel Business Briefing.