The situation in the billet market in Turkey has seen a good amount of confusion this week with both sellers and buyers finding it hard to determine workable levels. The key reason is the significant decline in rebar prices. Moreover, while export offers have fallen twice this week but have still remained above $700/mt FOB, in the local market some mills have decided to sell small lots at much lower levels as a gesture to construction companies, SteelOrbis understands. “Batches of around 2,000-5,000 mt were sold at $680-690/mt ex-works. One mill has even closed at $665/mt ex-works for some project demand, as far as we know,” a trading source commented.
It is worth mentioning that most market sources believe that low-priced rebar sales will not be widespread and consider them as an exception for a certain circle of buyers. Still, in such a situation, domestic billet suppliers have mainly decided to take a step back from active offering since their previous targets have been at $700-715/mt ex-works, in line with domestic mills’ official rebar prices which are at $700-720/mt ex-works. This week, a 7,500 mt lot has been sold in the Izmir region at slightly below $688/mt ex-works. Mills in the Iskenderun region prefer to concentrate on fulfilling existing orders and prefer to wait for clearer rebar pricing and scrap pricing. “Considering all these low prices for rebar, billet has to be at what - $650/mt ex-works? That is too sharp of a drop, so it’s better to wait,” a source told SteelOrbis.
In the import segment, prices have decreased by $5-15/mt over the past week to $665-680/mt CFR depending on the region. No business activity has been reported as hardly any serious bid has been voiced by Turkish buyers under the current market situation in the rebar segment.