SteelOrbis has been informed that, with Turkish steelmaker Kardemir revising its list prices for billets this week, demand in the Turkish domestic billet market has revived following the sluggish demand situation when prices were in the range of $400-415/mt ex-works last week. On February 18, Kardemir opened its sales for S235JR grade billets at the level of $370/mt ex-works, excluding VAT, and also opened its sales for MT III-A grade billets at $375/mt ex-works, excluding VAT. Compared to the price list issued on February 5, the producer reduced its billet prices by $30/mt. The sharp decline in Kardemir's prices prompted buyers to conclude purchases and the producer closed its billet sales within a couple of hours after receiving orders for a total of around 162,000 mt of billets. The sale of such a large volume of billet has raised the question of whether prices in the local Turkish billet market have bottomed out. However, such an optimistic view has to be weighed against factors such as the slowdown in the global steel market and expectations of declines in iron ore prices. In fact, such large volumes are more reflective of the attractive pricing strategy followed by Kardemir, which also has the effect of successfully blocking imports.
Meanwhile, market sources confirm that no new billet offers have been heard in Iskenderun, one of the important regions in the Turkish steel market, adding that supply volumes in the market were on the low side anyway.
On the other hand, although there have been rumors of various buyers in the Turkish market concluding ex-CIS billet purchases in the range of $358-360/mt CFR, official price levels from the CIS region to Turkey are in the range of $370-375/mt CFR. Additionally, no new billet offers have been heard from China as that country is out of the market due to the Chinese New Year holiday. The latest billet offers from China to the international market were heard at $340/mt FOB.