According to market sources, billet offers from CIS-based suppliers to the export markets have started to be clarified following the end of the holiday period on October 12. Currently, ex-CIS billet offers are in the range of $395-400/mt FOB. Meanwhile, it is heard that Belarusian billet producer BMZ concluded a deal close to the $395/mt FOB level early this week, but then increased its offers to $400/mt FOB afterwards. The details of this transaction became clearer in the following days, with it being confirmed that BMZ concluded the deal with a Turkish steelmaker for a total of 20,000 mt of billet via a trader at $412/mt CFR.
Furthermore, Russian billet suppliers have taken advantage of the weakness of the Russian ruble against the US dollar and issued billet export prices in the range of $395-400/mt FOB. Meanwhile, Ukrainian suppliers have continued their policy of keeping their offers in line with those of Russian suppliers and BMZ, and so their new offers are also in the range of $395-400/mt FOB.