Locally produced
billet prices in
Turkey have remained unchanged during the past week in the range of $330-350/mt ex-works. Demand in the local Turkish
billet market has declined week on week due to the approach of the end-of-Ramadan holiday (July 4-7), while transaction activity in the market is currently sluggish.
Meanwhile, Chinese
billet offers to
Turkey have increased by $5/mt over the past week to $310-320/mt CFR. 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 been limited. Accordingly, they have raised their
billet export quotations.
Additionally, ex-CIS
billet offers to
Turkey have remained unchanged during the past week at $320-330/mt CFR. However, SteelOrbis has been informed that suppliers in the CIS region are trying to increase their
billet offers to
Turkey in the absence of Chinese offers. Since Turkish buyers' demand for import
billet is at low levels, no rise in ex-CIS
billet prices has been recorded. In the meantime, during negotiations Chinese
billet suppliers are still inclined to accept Turkish steelmakers' requests for discounts.
On the other hand, Turkish steel producers believe that import
billet prices are not attractive enough to maintain a cost advantage compared to import scrap. As a result, they are still concluding deals for import scrap.