Posted on 27 Sep 2019
Import prices for long products remain soft in Southeast Asia, Kallanish notes. Weakness in scrap and an overall bearishness in sentiment continue to drag down markets.
Rebar from Turkey is offered in Singapore at $420/tonne cfr, theoretical-weight basis, traders report. One said that a cut-and-bend producer told him of such an offer. Others who heard this offer price also could not confirm it, but said that this level was possible, since the market appeared weaker.
“The market seems to be trending downwards still,” a Singapore trader says. But since traders did not have other details, they speculate that the offer could be to fill up a vessel with some other steel orders. Alternatively, it could be due to a cargo which was already on the water.
Another says that he guesses that buyers could now be bidding as low as $400/t cfr. Turkish rebar was booked last week at $430/t cfr Singapore.
Kallanish slightly lowered its weekly BS4449 500B 10-40mm dia rebar price on Thursday to $430/t cfr Singapore, down $2.5 on-week.
Meanwhile, the Manila market saw Chinese wire rod imports offers clipped lower on-week. Buying interest is still thin however amid bearishness.
Chinese 6.5mm diameter wire rod offers are lower by $5-10/t on week to $490-495/t cfr Manila, whereas offers for Malaysian-origin wire rod are unchanged at $470-475/t cfr Manila. A Chinese trader says that there is still no interest for Chinese wire rod at $490/t cfr.
Buyers are probably bidding lower for Malaysian wire rod and would likely be getting material at $465-470/t cfr, a Manila trader says. Chinese wire rod is offered at $465/t cfr Vietnam.
On Thursday, Kallanish lowered SAE 1008 6.5mm diameter mesh-grade wire rod by $2.5 on-week to $465-470/t cfr Manila.
