On July 5, Turkey’s integrated Kardemir opened its domestic 150 mm billet sales at $565/mt ex-works for S235JR grade and at $570/mt ex-works for B420 grade, dropping offers by $10/mt since before the holiday. Despite the decrease, buyers have not shown much interest in bookings and, according to some market players, only minor volumes have been booked. Some other sources, however, assume the total volume may reach around 10,000 mt, which is still unsatisfactory. Other local billet suppliers are still evaluating the market at around $575-585/mt ex-works and the number of offers available is limited.
In the import segment, a fresh sale of slightly more than 3,000 mt from Russia has been concluded at $510/mt CFR for a ready cargo, while earlier the supplier had been targeting $540-545/mt CFR. The previous deal for a small lot was closed by another seller at $520/mt CFR, as SteelOrbis reported. In addition, there has been talk that one of the steel producers has booked ex-Russia cargo at $510/mt CFR. Although the information has not been confirmed by the time of publication, it has also affected the market mood negatively.
The SteelOrbis daily reference price for ex-Russia square billet has decreased by $7.5/mt on average today to $490-495/mt FOB.
On the other hand, ex-Malaysia and ex-Indonesia offers are still standing at $540-545/mt CFR.