As a result of the declines seen in ex-CIS billet prices as well as the weakness of domestic billet demand in Turkey, Turkish producers' domestic billet quotations have decreased by an average of $10/mt week on week and are now in the range of $390-400/mt ex-works.
During the past week, ex-CIS and Chinese billet offers to Turkey have declined by $10/mt on the lower end to $390-410/mt CFR.
Market sources state that Chinese billet is still unable to provide any price or delivery time advantage for Turkish finished steel producers and so, despite the rapid declines seen in Chinese billet export prices, Turkish producers' demand for Chinese billet has not improved. On the other hand, demand for ex-CIS billet in Turkey has not revived either and is still at low levels as buyers consider ex-CIS billet offers to be on the high side, and also as buyers are mostly choosing scrap instead of billet due to more attractive costs. Meanwhile, a small number of buyers in Turkey prefer to purchase billet from local producers.