Iranian export billet prices follow global downtrend

By Vlada Novokreshchenova – Thursday 26 August

Iranian export prices for steel billet continued to decrease in the week to Wednesday August 25 amid the general global downtrend, Fastmarkets heard.

Steel output from the country’s mills was expected to improve in September, when the weather will be less hot and mills will be allowed a more generous allocation of electricity to be used for steelmaking.

For the moment, Iranian producers had to cut prices to win new sales.

A 40,000-tonnes cargo of Iranian billet for wire rod production, scheduled for shipment in October, was reported sold to China at $617 per tonne fob southern ports.

Excluding extra payment for wire-rod grade, the price for basic 3-5 sp material, as assessed by Fastmarkets, would be equivalent to $607 per tonne fob southern ports of Iran.

The freight cost for October was said to be $50-55 per tonne. Including a $10 per tonne trader’s margin and banking costs, the price would be equivalent to $677-682 per tonne cfr China.

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel billet, export, fob ports Iran, was $607 per tonne on August 25, down by $3-8 per tonne week on week.

In the slab sector, prices remained largely unchanged. Fastmarkets’ price assessment for steel slab, export, fob ports Iran, remained unchanged over the week at $700-720 per tonne on August 25.

Khouzestan Steel, one of the country’s major slab sellers, opened a tender for 30,000-40,000 tonnes of material ready for shipment in mid-September. The tender was expected to be finalized by the end of this week. The seller expected to get $700 per tonne fob, and market sources agreed that this may be achieved.

The upper end remained at $720 per tonne because Mobarakeh Steel, the country’s other major slab exporter, traditionally offers better quality material and a wider choice of sizes, so its slab prices are higher than those from Khouzestan.