US billet prices went up significantly along with the escalating domestic scrap prices.
Due to closing the year end and the holidays, re-rollers did not want to hold a lot of billet inventory, so billet purchasing activities went down last month. However, after the New Year, US billet demand has not shown significant improvement yet; re-rollers haven't increased their billet purchases while billet supply is sufficient in the market.
Although US billet demand hasn't picked up yet, with the big price increase of $65 to $75/long ton on domestic shredded scrap early this month, billet suppliers are pushing for higher billet prices as well. Currently, domestic billet prices are at the level of $680 to $690/mt, which is up approximately $75/mt from a month ago. Some optimistic market insiders expect domestic scrap prices will continue to go up in February, possibly by around $25/long ton, and so US billet prices will likely see a similar increase next month.
According to the US Import Monitoring and Analysis System (SIMA), total billet imports into the US in December 2010 were 9,351 mt, reflecting a decrease of 6,608 mt from the previous month. The primary billet exporters to the US during the period were: Mexico, at 4,145 mt; and Canada, at 4,034 mt. Other countries that exported smaller amounts of billet to the US include the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Japan.
The latest USITC data show that the total amount of US carbon billet exported in the month of November 2010 was 4,027 mt, which represent a decline of 6,155 mt when compared to the figure in October 2010. The main countries that imported US carbon billet in November 2010 were: Taiwan, at 3,043 mt; and Canada, at 853 mt. Venezuela also imported smaller amounts of billet from the US.