Ex-CIS billet offers fail to gain acceptance

During the past week, purchases and price inquiries for CIS origin billet in the export markets have slackened rapidly, while demand is now at low levels mainly due to the declining trend seen in Chinese billet export offers and also as buyers consider the new ex-CIS price levels to be unrealistic. In the same period, ex-CIS billet offers to the export markets have increased by $20/mt on the lower end and declined by $5/mt on the upper end to $320-340/mt FOB, for April production. Market sources state that the new ex-CIS billet offers have failed to gain acceptance from the buyers in the global markets, while buyers are stepping up their requests for discounts in line with the decreases recorded in Chinese billet offers.