It is observed that buyers in the local Turkish
billet market have postponed their purchases in the current week as it is the last week of the year, and so overall demand in the market has been at low levels. Despite the weakness of demand, domestic
billet prices have remained stable week on week at $410-430/mt ex-works after increasing in parallel with the rises seen in import scrap quotations in the deals concluded last week.
On the import side, Turkish buyers are still uninterested in Chinese
billet offers which have declined by $25/mt over the past week to $415-425/mt FOB. Meanwhile, ex-CIS
billet offers to
Turkey have also moved down, softening by $5/mt week on week to $405-415/mt CFR.
Market sources state that, in addition to the weakness of demand for ex-CIS
billet, the declining trend of Chinese
billet prices against the backdrop of the decreases seen in the Chinese futures market last week has contributed to the downward movement of ex-CIS
billet prices. Demand for
billet from the CIS region is still weak as Turkish buyers prefer scrap for steel production due to its cost advantage, while they are also unable to predict the future trend in the finished steel export markets and so are unwilling to conclude
billet purchases within the scope of
Turkey's inward processing regime (under this scheme mills have to give a commitment to export the finished products they produce from imported
billet).