The Philippine import steel billet market was able to take advantage of a drop in offer prices for Russian material in the week and purchase a cargo at lower prices, sources said on Friday November 26.
A deluge of resale 3sp, 150mm steel billet import cargoes, largely held by Chinese traders, has been sold into Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia, Taiwan and Thailand in the last month, disturbing the market for 5sp new production billets across the region.
Such purchasing has not taken place to the same extent in the Philippines, however, where most buyers are unable to consume 150mm-spec billets and many prefer the higher grade 5sp over 3sp materials.
With availability of their preferred 5sp 120-130mm billets much lower in the international markets, offer prices of these materials have been stronger than 3sp cargoes in November.
But market sources said that there was a noticeable drop in prices on Russia-origin 5sp billets to the Philippines this week, which followed a key change in the country’s export tax policy. The costly 15% steel export tax will be replaced with a smaller 2.7% excise tax…
Asia steel billet import markets rangebound after Russia-origin deals
Prices for cargoes of steel billet imported into major Asian markets have remained largely unchanged in recent days following deals in Russia at the end of last week, sources told Fast-markets on Tuesday November 30.billet
Buyers in the Philippines capitalized on lower offer prices from Russia last week, following confirmation that the country’s current 15% export tax on billet exports will expire at the end of the year and will be replaced by a 2.7% excise tax instead.
The declaration was followed by reduced offer for billet from Russia for February shipment, on which the lower rate of tax will be payable.
Together with the deal for 20,000 tonnes of 130mm Far East Russian 5sp billet booked at $640-650 per tonne cfr Philippines reported by Fast-markets on Friday, there were rumors that a deal for 30,000 tonnes of 125mm Far East Russian 5sp billet was also closed late…
Post time: Jan-02-2022