Ex-CIS billet prices move sideways

During the past week, demand for ex-CIS billet in the international market has remained at low levels. On the other hand, the ongoing blockade of railway lines in eastern Ukraine due to the continuing political tension in the country has caused problems with raw material procurement for the steel producers in the region, forcing some of them to halt production. As a result, billet supplies from the CIS region to the international market has declined. This, as well as the support provided by the rises seen in global scrap quotations, have enabled CIS-based suppliers to keep their billet export offers stable over the past week at $390-400/mt FOB despite the weakness of demand.
 
Although some CIS-based traders' billet offers to Turkey are heard to be at $400/mt CFR, CIS-based steel mills have not reduced their offers to Turkey to this level but have kept their offers at $405-415/mt CFR. On the other hand, Turkish steel mills' demand for import scrap is lively, while they also prefer import scrap instead of import billet due to its favorable price. Accordingly, demand in Turkey for billet from the CIS region is still weak. Also, Turkish buyers consider the current ex-CIS billet offers to be on the high side and have failed to obtain their targeted price levels of $390-395/mt CFR. As a result, they have focused on buying billet from domestic suppliers.
 
Demand for ex-CIS billet in Egypt is still weak, while CIS-based suppliers' billet offers to the country have remained stable week on week at $410/mt CFR. Market sources state that Egyptian buyers also consider this price level to be on the high side and so are reluctant to conclude new deals for ex-CIS billet.