According to market sources, Turkish producers’ domestic billet prices have decreased by $8/mt on average over the past week to $310-315/mt ex-works, excluding 18 percent VAT, and for November delivery. After last week’s price uptrend, the reason for this latest price decrease is considered to be the increased demand for import billet in Turkey. Following several import scrap bookings concluded in the first two weeks of November, Turkish producers have accelerated their inquiries for import billet instead of higher-priced domestic billet. However, they are in no rush to conclude bookings of domestic and import billet due to year-end issues. Meanwhile, a Turkish steel producer has concluded an ex-CIS deal this week for 30,000 mt of billet at $281-282/mt CFR, for December shipment.
In addition, Chinese billet offers to Turkey are at $260-270/mt CFR for December shipments, while it is possible to conclude purchases of Chinese billet at $255-260/mt CFR Turkey for shipment in subsequent months.