The billet market in Turkey has remained active at the end of the current week, but rather in terms of inquiring and checking prices than in terms of actual serious intentions of buyers to purchase. The moods in China has become a little more optimistic and offer prices for billet to Turkey have inched up, while scrap prices are also firm in Turkey’s import segment. However, recently, more and more import offers for billet from China have been coming in for August shipments, which means the material will be delivered in the first half of September. As a result, not many serious negotiations are heard, although the availability of billet with a shorter lead time is not plentiful either.
A majority of ex-China offers for end-of-July and August shipments have been reported at $470-473/mt CFR today, May 15, while only a couple of suppliers are at $467-468/mt CFR, while others find this hard to achieve from the mills in China. Earlier this week, ex-China billet offers stood at $466-470/mt CFR, as SteelOrbis reported. The billet prices from Malaysia are not firmly indicated in the market, following reported sales last week mainly at $470-475/mt CFR. However, some sources said there is cargo in the market for June-July shipment, offered at $475/mt CFR. Billet from Indonesia is priced at $440/mt FOB currently, which indicatively is around $475/mt CFR Turkey, with no firm negotiations heard.
Billet suppliers from the Black Sea area have not been very active recently. While Ukrainian mills are either offering at $500/mt CFR, which is a bit high, or prefer to deal with European customers at better price levels, billet flow from Russia and the Russia-controlled Donbass area has been quite weak. The most recent deals for 5,000-6,000 mt of billet from Russia have been reported at $460/mt CFR since those were for June shipment, while bids for cargoes with a longer lead time have been mainly at no higher than $450/mt CFR. The SteelOrbis daily reference price for ex-Russia billet to be shipped from the Black Sea has remained stable since earlier this week at $440/mt FOB.
In the Turkish domestic market, while in the north buyers are waiting for Kardemir to announce its new price, most probably due next week, some suppliers in the other regions have been attempting a price increase for billet, citing firmer scrap prices. Particularly, an Iskenderun-region based mill has been aiming to get $510/mt ex-works, which is up $13/mt from the previous deal by another mill in this area, but buyers’ price ideas are not much above $500-505/mt ex-works, SteelOrbis understands. In the Izmir region, one of the producers has been offering at $515/mt ex-works, while an offer from the Marmara region to Izmir-based buyers has been reported at around $520-522/mt CFR ($510/mt FOB).