During the past week, the downtrend of ex-CIS billet prices has accelerated, with prices declining by $30/mt on the lower end and by $15/mt on the upper end week on week. As a result, CIS-based suppliers’ billet export prices have decreased to $500-525/mt FOB as demand continues to be characterized by weakness.
The reasons for this acceleration are reportedly the weak demand and the falls recorded in global scrap quotations. Meanwhile, the recent protectionist measures and investigations initiated against steel imports in the international markets have caused problems in the steel markets by slowing down trading activities. Accordingly, these developments have negatively influenced international demand for ex-CIS billet as well as ex-CIS billet prices.
Following the declines recorded in ex-CIS billet quotations, CIS-based suppliers’ offers to their main target markets, Turkey and Egypt, are now at $520-540/mt CFR, though they are failing to attract interest in both markets due to the abovementioned developments.