Proposal to amend frequency of cfr China steel billet import price assessment

Fastmarkets increased the frequency of this price to twice-weekly on September 28, 2021, in response to higher liquidity and demand from market participants.

Since then, the price has been assessed on Tuesdays and Fridays at 5-6pm Shanghai time, following the Chinese pricing calendar.

But liquidity has dropped significantly since March 2022 due to lower local China steel prices and huge bid-offer gaps being prevalent in the market. Over this period, China has tended to mostly only import cheaper steel billet from Iran or Russia.

In the first half of the year, China imported 1.31 million tonnes of steel billet, a year-on-year drop of 66%, according to customs statistics.

The consultation period for this proposed amendment starts from Tuesday September 13 and will end on Thursday October 13. The amendment will then take place, subject to market feedback, on Monday October 17.

The specifications for the affected prices are as follows, with the proposed amendments highlighted in bold:

MB-STE-0890 Steel billet, import, cfr China, $/tonneQuality: 120x120mm to 150x150mm, length 12m, 3sp grade
Quantity: 5,000-50,000 tonnes
Location: cfr eastern China ports (normalized for other mainland Chinese sea ports)
Timing: 4-8 weeks
Unit: USD per tonne
Payment terms: Letter of credit on sight
Publication: Weekly, Friday, 5-6pm Shanghai time

To provide feedback on this price or if you would like to provide price information by becoming a data submitter to this price, please contact Lee Allen by email at: pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading “FAO: Lee Allen, re: cfr China steel billet.”

To see all Fastmarkets’ pricing methodology and specification documents go to https://www.fastmarkets.com/about-us/methodology.