Following the end-of-Ramadan holiday, demand in the Turkish billet market has failed to revive and is still at low levels. With Turkish steel producer Kardemir revising its billet prices upwards on June 30, domestically produced billet prices in Turkey have increased by $10/mt on the upper end to $330-360/mt ex-works. However, it is observed that Turkish steel mills are uninterested in billet offers as they still continue to purchase import scrap, while Turkish rolling mills are also unwilling to conclude billet transactions except to meet their needs, as they consider billet prices to be on the high side.
On the other hand, import billet prices to Turkey have moved up during the past two weeks despite the weak demand conditions seen in the same period. Due to China's State Administration of Taxation's ongoing special audits on tax refunds received by steel producers in Tangshan for exports of square bars, the volume of Chinese billet suppliers' offers to the export markets has declined significantly, while ex-China billet export quotations have increased in the same period. As a result of the decline recorded in the volume of ex-China billet export offers, billet supply in the global market has also moved down. As a result, billet suppliers in the CIS region have increased their export quotations as price inquiries have once again accelerated for ex-CIS billet in Egypt and Middle Eastern countries after the end-of-Ramadan holiday.
Compared to the price levels recorded before Ramadan, suppliers in the CIS region have raised their billet export prices by $10/mt to $330-340/mt CFR, while Chinese suppliers have increased their billet offers by $25/mt in the same period to $335-345/mt CFR.