During the past week, Turkish
billet producers have kept their domestic prices stable at $340-360/mt ex-works, while demand in the local Turkish
billet market has remained at low levels as buyers have been concluding purchases only in line with their needs and are postponing restocking activities. Additionally, it has been heard that Turkish mill Kardemir has been concluding deals for small tonnages in the same period at $350/mt ex-works.
Meanwhile, ex-CIS
billet offers to
Turkey have moved sideways over the past week at $330-340/mt CFR. Also, Chinese
billet suppliers' offers to
Turkey have remained unchanged at $370-380/mt CFR. Market sources state that Turkish buyers still consider Chinese
billet prices to be unattractive, while demand for Chinese
billet is currently at low levels as Turkish buyers are showing no interest in Chinese
billet. At the same time, Chinese
billet suppliers are only giving a limited number of offers to the global market since they have been focusing on their domestic market.
In the short term, Turkish buyers are expected to continue purchasing import scrap instead of
billet as
billet quotations are not attractive enough to ensure a cost advantage in finished steel production. Accordingly, demand for import
billet in
Turkey is expected to remain weak, while no acceleration in import
billet purchases is foreseen.