Global scrap prices - which had started to decline after the first week of January and decreased by steeper margins as of the third week of the month, pulling down global billet and long steel prices - have indicated a further slight decrease over the past week. As a result, and also due to the weakness of demand for CIS origin billet in the export markets, ex-CIS billet offers have decreased by $10/mt week on week to $360-370/mt FOB.
With their recent declines, ex-CIS billet offers to Turkey have decreased by an average of $12.5/mt over the past week to $375-390/mt CFR. However, Turkish buyers consider this price range to be on the high side as import scrap prices in Turkey have declined by approximately $75/mt during January.
Meanwhile, ex-CIS billet offers to Egypt have declined by $10/mt week on week to $375/mt CFR. However, billet buyers in Egypt, where long steel producers have been revising their prices downwards since mid-January due to the sharp declines in scrap prices and due to the weakness of demand in the domestic market, prefer to postpone their billet bookings as their expectations for further declines in billet prices have heightened. Accordingly, demand for ex-CIS billet in Egypt is still weak.