The price trend in Turkey’s billet market remains negative as the suppliers are under pressure of lowered rebar prices and falling scrap. Despite that the billet availability in the local and import segment is limited, it does not help the sellers to stabilize the prices.
Integrated steel mill Kardemir has announced new local billet sales today, on July 26, and lowered the price by $45/mt over the week. Currently, supplier’s S235JR billet is available at $630/mt ex-works and B420 material is priced at $635/mt ex-works. Despite the significant price decrease, the demand for Kardemir’s billet has been scarce and only around 4,000 mt have been traded. “Rebar we can say is $650/mt so there is no room for this billet price,” a trader said. Generally, the number of local billet offers in Turkey remains limited as the mills prefer selling finished steel instead of semis and not to feed their competitors. “Unfavorable market conditions push them to narrow the competitors’ playing ground as well. So it is kind of a strategic move,” another source commented. The general level of billet offers in Turkish local market is at $620-640/mt ex-works, down from $650/mt ex-works and up seen last week.
In the import segment only a few suppliers are there and the indicative offer level is estimated at $560-570/mt CFR, while last week the lowest deal was closed at $575/mt CFR Izmir. No active negotiations have been reported as, on one side, buyers estimate the workable level at around $530/mt CFR and even below, and, sellers, on the other side, are facing difficulties to sell that low due to high production costs. However, sources believe $550/mt CFR might be the anticipated workable level in the reality in the coming days considering sanctioned Russian and Donbas origins. Aside from these, there are offers for billet from Iran at $530/mt CFR, buyers report. In addition, according to sources, the information about 25,000 mt of billet from Bahrain traded to Turkey at around $605/mt CFR. Although the sale has not been confirmed by the time of publication, market players believe it could have been done. “Local [billet price] is higher and if one can’t buy from Russia.. So there is no other option. Although taking such a long-term position is a bit nonsense,” a trader told SteelOrbis.