All major CIS-based billet exporters have increased their offers further this week or have been staying away from active offering, watching the rising market trend. Stronger scrap prices together with no urgent need for most producers to sell have supported the uptrend of ex-CIS billet prices.
Overall trading activity has not been strong recently. A contract for 20,000 mt of ex-CIS billet has been concluded at $525/mt CFR to Tunisia, which corresponds to around $500/mt FOB. Some traders have also been ready to buy ex-CIS billet at $500/mt FOB, sources have said, but the mills have been reluctant to give this price level.
Turkish buyers have been more cautious in inquiries for imported billet and no new bookings have been confirmed. As SteelOrbis reported earlier, the latest deal was rumored at $515-516/mt CFR or $500/mt FOB Black Sea, but this has not received final confirmation.
Most offers from CIS-based mills have been at $510/mt FOB and above recently, up from $495-510/mt FOB reported earlier this week. “Scrap moves up, so no one will go down from $510/mt FOB,” a trader stated, sharing his opinion. “We are still watching the market,” one producer said.
One of Russian mills has said that sentiment may remain positive for the whole of December, if the raw material market, scrap in particular, keeps giving support.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-CIS billet from the Black Sea region has improved by a further slight margin to $500/mt FOB, up by $5/mt today, December 4.
In the Far East, the uptrend has also continued, a steel producer in Russia’s Far East region has managed to sell billet to the Philippines at $510/mt CFR first and at $515-520/mt CFR later this week. Last week, the tradable price level was $490-500/mt CFR Southeast Asia. Producers from the Black Sea region are not interested in sales to Asia at the current price level.