With the recent significant increase in US scrap prices, billet suppliers are pushing for higher billet prices as well.
The domestic billet market has stayed relatively stable from a month ago. Billet availability is sufficient while billet demand is tepid. As domestic mills already bought adequate billet tonnages for their needs, there is not a lot of buying activity to be seen in the market for the time being.
However, with US shredded scrap prices increasing by approximately $40 to $45/long ton in the beginning of the month, billet suppliers have followed suit and raised the domestic billet prices by $40/mt to the level of $605 to $615/mt, even though the current domestic billet market is slow. As US scrap prices are likely to go up again significantly in January, it is expected that domestic billet prices will increase by at least $20/mt next month.
According to the US Import Monitoring and Analysis System (SIMA), total billet imports into the US in November were 15,959 mt, reflecting a small increase of 503 mt from the previous month. The primary billet exporters to the US during the period were: Canada, at 8,930 mt; Brazil, at 3,657 mt; and Mexico, at 2,667 mt. Other countries that exported smaller amounts of billet to the US include Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
The latest USITC data show that the total amount of US carbon billet exported in the month of October was 10,182 mt, which represent a significant decrease of 23,624 mt when compared to the figure in September. The main countries that imported US carbon billet in October were: Taiwan, at 5,927 mt; and Ecuador, at 3,574 mt. Other countries that imported smaller amounts of billet from the US include Canada, Mexico, and Brazil.