Stuck in the middle between finished steel product prices and scrap costs, in recent weeks Turkish billet prices had been hovering at high levels in the local market, and not only Turkish rolling mills but also the EAFs had started to import billets from the CIS. Thus, rebar offers from Turkey (especially from rolling mills) had been hovering at high levels in both the local and export markets. Scrap offers to Turkey, which had been on an uptrend for weeks, have this week registered a downtrend due to the following reasons: first, Turkish EAFs have been turning their attention to CIS and European billets and have slowed down their scrap purchases; second, global demand for finished steel products is at low levels and, as a result, overall scrap demand is not at desired levels. With the abovementioned price decline in scrap offers to Turkey, both CIS and Turkish billet prices have this week registered a slackening trend.
While billet offers from Ukraine and Russia have this week fallen to $380-390/mt FOB CIS, billet prices in Turkey have declined during the current week to levels of $400-410/mt ex-works from the previous week's level of around $470/mt.
With the prices of billet fluctuating between finished steel product prices and scrap prices, the future direction of billet prices, which are currently on the decline in the CIS and Turkey, will be seen more clearly after observing the finished steel and scrap movements in the coming days.