In the first week of 2018, the local Turkish billet market has continued to be characterized by the quiet activity seen before the holiday season.
According to market sources, buyers in the local Turkish billet market have also maintained their wait-and-see stance as they are not sure of the future trend of the market and they are in no rush to conclude new billet deals. Under the current circumstances, the latest domestic billet offers in Turkey have remained at $540-550/mt ex-works, unchanged week on week. Meanwhile, it is reported that a steel producer in Turkey’s Iskenderun region has concluded a domestic billet sale at $550/mt ex-works.
Additionally, with most CIS-based suppliers still on holiday, buyers are just monitoring the market as they want to see the new ex-CIS billet offer prices before concluding fresh deals. The latest ex-CIS billet offers to Turkey were heard at $530-535/mt CFR last week.
On the other hand, following Turkey’s announcement of the cancelation of the ten percent import duty on rebar, scrap suppliers are trying to gain a better perspective of the impact on the future scrap purchasing strategy of Turkish steel mills. Turkish billet buyers are not expected to be in a rush to conclude new transactions before they comprehend the impact of this decision.
China’s billet export prices had declined sharply after China’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced revisions to export tax rates on Friday, December 15, stating that the export tax on billets would be reduced from 15 percent to 10 percent as of January 1, 2018, with this move causing apprehension in the international steel markets. Meanwhile, Chinese suppliers’ billet export offers have fluctuated in line with the steel futures markets in the current week and are at $515-525/mt FOB today, January 3. Chinese billet export prices are not exerting any significant downward pressure on the global markets.