Steel Billets (3SP / 5SP, Q235 / Q275)

Continuous-cast square billets for re-rolling mills

A steel billet is the semi-finished square you feed a re-rolling mill, and it is contracted on three things: chemistry, section and length. Chemistry is what the mill's downstream product needs — 3SP (carbon 0.14–0.22%, manganese 0.40–0.85%) is the everyday rebar and merchant-bar feed, 5SP (carbon 0.28–0.37%, manganese 0.50–0.80%) gives the strength for higher-yield bar without microalloying, and the Chinese Q235 / Q275 designations sit alongside them for the same end uses. Sulphur and phosphorus are held at or below 0.045–0.050% each, and a mill rolling B500B or ASTM A615 Grade 60 rebar will also specify a carbon-equivalent ceiling so the finished bar stays weldable. Section is 100, 120, 130 or 150 mm square, most re-rollers taking 130 mm, and length is 6 or 12 m to fit the reheat furnace. Surface condition — no cracks, laps or scale pockets beyond the tolerance — is inspected before loading because a surface defect on a billet becomes a seam on every bar rolled from it.

The seaborne billet trade is large and concentrated. UN Comtrade 2025 export declarations put Brazil at 7.40 Mt (USD 523/MT declared), Indonesia at 2.39 Mt (USD 442), Malaysia at 1.82 Mt (USD 544), Oman at 1.35 Mt (USD 606) and India at 1.08 Mt (USD 460), out of 13 declaring origins. Oman's own 2025 declarations show where a Gulf billet actually goes: 44% to Saudi Arabia and 32% to the UAE, with Australia, the Dominican Republic and Spain taking the rest. The spread between Indonesian and Omani declared values is the cost of DRI-based low-residual steel against induction-furnace scrap steel, and a re-roller pays it only where the finished product demands it. CBIL brokers billets between electric-arc and induction-furnace producers and re-rolling mills as a commodity brokerage company, against mill test certificates and third-party inspection of chemistry, section and surface. Parcels are worked in Handysize and Supramax breakbulk, bundled and strapped, on FOB and CFR terms, and because CBIL runs a chartering desk (LaycanDesk) the freight can be quoted alongside the cargo rather than left to a second negotiation. Send your grade, section, length and monthly draw and we will work the allocation to it.

Need the ship as well? Our chartering desk prices steel coil and plates breakbulk freight on LaycanDesk.