During the past two weeks, domestic billet prices in Turkey have decreased by $7.5/mt to $445-450/mt ex-works. The expectations of a rise in domestic billet prices after the end-of-Ramadan holiday have failed to materialize due to lower scrap quotations, the uncertainties resulting from the rerunning of the local elections in Istanbul on June 23 and also due to the weakness of demand.
Buyers in the local Turkish billet market have started to conclude purchases just in line with their daily needs as they have procured some of their needs from Kardemir’s billet sales opened early yesterday, June 11, and closed later on the same day after sales totaling about 64,000 mt. On the other hand, the tightness of supply observed in Turkey’s Marmara region is causing buyers in this region to make price inquiries from the Izmir region, while buyers in the Iskenderun region are struggling due to longer delivery times.
Additionally, Turkish mills have reduced their billet export offers by $12.5/mt as compared to levels seen two weeks ago to $440-445/mt FOB as they want to be able to compete with CIS-based suppliers’ billet export offers, which are currently in the range of $420-430/mt FOB. SteelOrbis has been informed that Turkish producers are lowering their prices slightly below the $440/mt FOB level for large tonnages and actual sales.