CIS billet prices begin to move on a fluctuating trend

In recent weeks, local Turkish rolling mills and even some EAFs have turned their direction to CIS origin billet since there had been some scrap deals in Turkey at high price levels and Turkish billet prices had increased in line with these scrap deals. The Turkish rolling mills and EAFs in question had concluded billet deals for large tonnages from the CIS.  Thanks to this course of action, Turkish rebar producers began to offer rebars to the export markets at low price levels despite the high prices of scrap. Meanwhile, Turkish producers had concluded rebar deals at price levels of $515-520/mt in recent weeks and also in the early days of the current week; however, it is observed that these levels have not been accepted in the Iraqi market in recent days.
 
CIS origin billet offers to Turkey at the price level of around $400/mt CFR Turkey have not been accepted since Turkish rebar export offers' FOB prices have this week been on a downtrend. As of today, January 23, billet offers given from Ukraine to Turkey have softened to the price level of $390/mt FOB Ukraine.
 
Elsewhere, billet price levels in the local Turkish market have this week remained unchanged compared to last week due to the influence of the scrap prices in Turkey. Thus, billet prices in Turkey have this week remained at $430-450/mt ex-works. However, since rebar producers have not had much of a profit margin due to the fluctuation in the US $/TRY exchange rate observed early this week, rebar producing rolling mills in Turkey have this week leaned towards billet purchases from the local Turkish market.
 
With billet prices experiencing upward pressure due to rising scrap prices and also feeling downward pressure due to the lack of acceptance of finished product prices, there is currently a huge question mark over the future direction of the billet market in Turkey