Activity in the Turkish billet market is quiet as a result of the slowdown seen in import scrap demand in Turkey as well as the mostly weak demand received from Turkish rebar suppliers’ domestic and export markets. In addition to these factors, the gradual decline seen in Chinese billet export prices since the beginning of March with prices currently at $505-525/mt FOB has also been playing a role in the lack of a revival in both domestic and export demand for Turkish billet.
It is observed that ex-CIS billet offers to Turkey have remained stable during the past week at $570-575/mt CFR. However, with their most recent ex-CIS billet deals concluded at $570/mt CFR, Turkish billet buyers’ current firm bids for ex-CIS billet have declined to the range of $550-560/mt CFR. No buying activity for ex-CIS billet has been observed in Turkey over the past week, while trading activity for domestic billet in the local Turkish market has also been at a standstill as buyers are maintaining their wait-and-see stance. SteelOrbis has been informed that, following the domestic billet deals concluded at $580-590/mt ex-works, no new price offer has been heard in the local Turkish billet market.