Billet market in Turkey has been rather dull lately with minimal business activity in both local and import segments. Scrap has been weak along with the slow rebar market, making billet buyers, especially small and medium-sized ones, rather unwilling to restock in billet. Prices for billet, in the meantime, have been moving sideways to slightly lower compared to the past week.
Import offers for Chinese billet are still at $455-460/mt CFR for August shipments, while rumours about deals at $455/mt and $458/mt CFR have been heard in the market. No confirmation has been received, and most market players assume that the alleged deal price level is a tad high for the current market conditions. Malaysian offers for 165 mm billet are at $485/mt CFR still, same as in the past week. One of the Ukrainian mills, in the meantime, is in the market with $495-500/mt CFR for 3sp billet for end-July and August shipments. Ex-Indonesia billet offers are at $427/mt FOB, translating to around $462-465/mt CFR, but the availability is only with a long lead time.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Russia billet has corrected slightly down to $430-432/mt FOB with the midpoint at $431/mt FOB Black Sea, down by $2.5/mt on average from late last week. The major Turkish buyers have said that there have been still very limited offers from Russia and since “they [exporters] stay out of the market, prices are nominal,” a Turkish source said. However, there have been reports about some Russian billet volumes traded at $451/mt CFR, translating to $431/mt FOB. Also, there have been rumors about ex-Donbass billet sold at $448-450/mt CFR to Turkey and some sources said about the small volume changing hands at $447/mt CFR, but this has not been confirmed by the time of publication.
In the domestic market of billet in Turkey, the business activity has remained subdued, while the prices slid slightly - by $5/mt from the upper end. In the Iskenderun region, the offer level remained at $500-505/mt ex-works, and around 10,000 mt have been traded this week at $500/mt ex-works, SteelOrbis has learned. Izmir region-based mill is in the market with $505-510/mt ex-works offer with no deals closed just yet. In the Marmara region, the billet price is at 495-500/mt ex-works, same as in the past week.
