Venezuela's hot-briquetted iron producers are holding onto supply in an effort to hike prices in a market with few bids and even fewer confirmed deals, sources said Wednesday.
Platts assessed Venezuela HBI at $180-$210/mt FOB Venezuelan ports, with a midpoint at $195/mt FOB, considering bids, offers and deals for February bookings.
A Venezuelan trader has been offering 30,000 mt of HBI at $180/mt FOB Palua port, after trying to sell the same material at $190/mt, but without success.
One US trader also offered 25,000 mt of HBI, increasing its prices from $250/mt to $300/mt "due to the producers' pressure for higher profits," he said. "No luck in the real market though."
A 120,000 mt HBI cargo has been available to US customers since early January at the same $200/mt FOB offer.
Two other US traders reported offering this week 40,000 mt at $210/mt and 20,000 mt at $220/mt, respectively.
A 25,000 mt cargo was offered for an European buyer at $210/mt FOB for February bookings, slightly up from his previous offer at $190/mt in January.
The same price was seen with a Venezuelan supplier, who reported offering 30,000 mt at $210/mt FOB.
Chinese traders continued to offer Venezuelan-made HBI at as high as $400/mt FOB to Asia, while an American trader also rolled its price at $405/mt FOB.
Venezuela's largest HBI producer, Briquetera del Orinoco (BriqOri) recently, said it was expecting to ship around 90,000 mt of HBI in February, but it was still waiting for firm bids.
Market sources said BriqOri has over 230,000 mt of HBI in its inventories.
"Substitute materials for HBI - with better prices - are getting in the way of the Venezuelan metallic industry," one source said.
The country's HBI output decreased 1.6% to 1.392 million mt in 2015 from 1.415 million mt in 2014, according to estimates from World Steel Association. The monthly average production figure was 116,000 mt.
Venezuela has HBI installed capacity of 6.9 million mt/year, but has seen reduced production in recent years, mainly due to a lack of pellets.
