Demand in the local Turkish billet market is still slack this week. Since Turkish buyers are making domestic billet bookings only to meet their immediate needs, resulting with slackness in trading activity and due to the softening of scrap and rebar prices this week, Turkish billet producers have decreased their offers for domestic market by $10/mt on the lower end to the range of $330-350/mt ex-works.
Meanwhile, demand for import billet is also slack in Turkish market. Chinese billet offers to export markets, which moved on a downtrend during the month of August, has started to soften due to weak demand and the declines in Chinese steel futures market. Accordingly, Chinese billet offers to Turkish market has decreased by $27.5/mt over the past two weeks to $345-350/mt CFR. On the other hand, ex-CIS billet offers to Turkey have declined by $15/mt on average to $315-325/mt CFR; however, Turkish buyers consider this price range to be on the high side. Market sources state that Turkish steel producers continue to make import scrap bookings and show little interest in import billet offers.