Billet market activity in the Black Sea region has been quiet this week, following several sales closed to Turkey earlier. Most suppliers, including those with position cargoes in hand or lots for prompt shipment, have been postponing active talks, hoping for some market movement early next week. While a certain push on trade is expected from Turkey, some additional small lots to Egypt have been sold at a slightly higher price than in early September. However, the Egyptian market is considered to be a special case as there are still certain payment issues, which certainly impact steel price levels.
In particular, there have been two 5,000 mt billet lots to be shipped from Novorossiysk and traded recently at $475/mt and $480/mt FOB to a trader for the Egyptian market. Prior to this, a 10,000 mt lot had been sold through the same channel at $470/mt FOB. With the latest deals, the SteelOrbis daily reference price for ex-Russia billet has increased by $5/mt on the upper end over the past week to $470-480/mt FOB. However, as far as the Turkish market is concerned, the level is at $470-475/mt FOB in rare offers still. In addition, according to sources, one of the large traders has recently taken a 20,000 mt position for a cargo, which is believed to be a mix of Russian, Donbass and Belarusian square billet. The information has not been confirmed by the time of publication, but the price is estimated at $470/mt FOB once again.
In Turkey, offers for October shipment billet from Russia have been reported at $505-515/mt CFR for small lots, while up to $520/mt CFR for bigger volumes. But there have been no new deals reported after last week’s sales at $503/mt CFR for 6,000 mt of October shipment and at $510/mt CFR for prompt shipment. However, one more deal has been disclosed recently as done for ex-Donbass billet at $495/mt CFR last week for 5,000 mt. This information has been denied by the potential seller, and a few market sources said that for now suppliers will not agree to anything below $500/mt CFR. “We would be glad to sell at $515/mt CFR Izmir, but there are no such high bids from Turkey yet,” a trader said.
According to sources, some other traders still have positions, taken from mills a little earlier, and with freight rates stable at high levels, they are waiting for some positive push from scrap or from the finished steel market in Turkey first. There have been no prompt shipment ex-Russia billet offers this week.