During the past week, billet producers’ offers to the local Turkish market have declined by an average of $5/mt week on week to $540-545/mt ex-works due to the influence of lower import scrap prices in Turkey.
On Friday, January 19, Turkish steel producer Kardemir opened its sales for 150 mm x 150 mm S235JR grade billets at the level of TRY 2,025/mt ex-works, and also opened its sales for MT III-A grade billets at TRY 2,045/mt ex-works, both excluding VAT. Kardemir closed its billet sales on the same day, after selling about 95,000 mt in total. Considering the Turkish lira-US dollar exchange rate recorded on the morning of January 19, Kardemir offered S235JR grade billets to its domestic market at $536/mt ex-works. After Kardemir closed its domestic sales, it was observed that the prices in the local Turkish billet market started to move in the range of $540-545/mt ex-works.
On the same day, a steelmaker in Turkey’s Iskenderun region concluded a domestic sale of 30,000 mt of billet at $540/mt ex-works.
On the other hand, trading activity in the Turkish billet market has been sluggish as the local Turkish rebar market has made a very quiet start to the current week. As a result, buyers in the Turkish billet market have maintained a wait-and-see stance with the expectation of a further decline in billet prices.
Additionally, ex-CIS billet offers to Turkey have decreased by an average of $5/mt week on week to $525-530/mt CFR due to the weakness of demand.