Export Billet Prices Soften on Revived Buying Activity

Iranian export billet prices lost $10 per ton over the past week while several bookings were heard done at lower prices.

Metal Bulletin’s weekly price assessment for Iranian export billet was $500-510 per ton FOB on Jan. 17, against $510-520 per ton FOB a week earlier.

Offers of billet from traders and mills were varying within the range of $510-520 per ton FOB.

Khouzestan Steel COmpany, the country’s largest billet exporter, opened a tender on January 15 for the sale of billet for March shipment and invited customers to bid by January 19. The mill’s price idea was voiced at $515-520 per ton FOB because previous sales were closed at $510-515 per ton FOB in early January.

Concurrently, several cargoes of Iranian billet from another Iranian supplier were reported booked at $500-510 per ton FOB in the UAE as well as by traders.

In the UAE, bookings were heard completed at $521-525 per ton CFR.

A cargo of Iranian billet was also heard booked in Egypt at $525 per ton CFR, one source said, but this information could not be widely confirmed by the time of publication.

“The Egyptian market still looks passive. This cargo could have been booked earlier, but shipped now,” a trading source said.

Metal Bulletin’s weekly price assessment for the Iranian export slab price remained unchanged at $485-490 per ton FOB on Jan. 17.

Recent bookings were heard done within the assessment’s range.

New prices will be available on Jan. 19 after Khouzestan Steel Company, Mobarakeh Steel Company and its subsidiary Hormozgan Steel Company close their tenders.

The mills’ price estimation varied within the range of $490-500 per ton FOB.