In addition to the influence of the slackening of scrap prices in recent weeks, CIS and Turkish billet prices have also been maintaining their downtrend since the desired demand for finished steel has not been registered in the period of almost three weeks which has passed since the end of Ramadan.
In the last three weeks, the decrease in Turkish billet price levels had started earlier compared to the downtrend in CIS billet prices, with the Turkish prices trending down to almost the same levels as CIS export prices. Thus, CIS traders decreased their billet prices by $10/mt in order to compete with the Turkish offers. However, it has been heard that in some cases international traders gave even lower price levels compared to the CIS producers. This week ex-CIS billet export offers have been heard at $415-430/mt FOB.
On the other hand, billet prices in Turkey have decreased in both the domestic and export markets. Local producer Kardemir has this week opened its sales for S235JR grade (St 37) billets of 130 mm x 130 mm x 6-12 m size at the level of $432/mt ex-works, excluding VAT. Meanwhile, mentioned Turkish billet export offers have been in the range of $435-445/mt FOB.