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