Demand in the local Turkish
billet market has remained at low levels ahead of the end-of-Ramadan holiday, while the trend of domestic
billet prices in
Turkey has switched to an upward direction in the past week with the influence of the rises seen in import scrap and long steel quotations. Last week, on June 13, Turkish steel mill Kardemir opened its sales for S235JR grade billets at the level of TRY 1,445/mt ($411/mt) ex-works, excluding VAT. In addition to the reduction Kardemir announced, the downward trend of the Turkish rebar market also influenced domestic
billet prices in
Turkey, causing them to fall by $20/mt on the lower end and by $5/mt on the upper end to $410-435/mt ex-works. However, after Kardemir closing its
billet sales on June 19, after selling about 73,000 mt of
billet in total, it is observed that domestic
billet prices in
Turkey have increased by $5/mt on the lower end to $415-435/mt ex-works.
Ex-CIS
billet offers to
Turkey are still heard to be at $410-430/mt CFR, while Turkish buyers' demand for ex-CIS
billet remains at low levels. Market sources report that import
billet deals are not advantageous for Turkish
billet buyers in terms of price or delivery time, and so they mostly prefer to work with local mills for their
billet purchases which continue to be only in line with their needs.
It is observed that Chinese
billet export offers have increased by an average of $15/mt during the past week to $435-440/mt FOB. Market sources report that the rises seen in iron ore prices and in the steel futures markets in China have contributed to the upward movement of Chinese
billet export quotations. Additionally, although demand for Chinese
billet in the overseas markets is weak, the reduced supply of
billet in the local Chinese market has supported the rise in export quotations.