During the past week, demand in the local Turkish billet market has continued to be characterized by sluggishness as buyers are concluding purchases only in line with their needs. As a result, Turkish billet producers have reduced their domestic prices by $10/mt on the upper end week on week to $340-350/mt ex-works.
Regarding import billet offers to Turkey, Turkish buyers’ demand for import billet has not indicated any recovery over the past week and it is still weak. Also, Turkish buyers are still purchasing import scrap instead of billet as billet quotations are not attractive enough to ensure a cost advantage in finished steel production.
Meanwhile, ex-CIS billet offers to Turkey have remained stable week on week at $330-340/mt CFR. Even though Turkish buyers consider Chinese billet offers - which have remained stable over the past week at $370-380/mt CFR - to be on the high side, Chinese exporters have not revised their prices.