Russian billet suppliers are slowly coming back from the New Year holidays. But even though there have been a lot of expectations that they will manage to increase prices, following the recent rises in scrap prices and firm Asian billet offers, there has been no increase seen in the latest deals signed in the first half of January.
In particular, a few contracts were done at $455-462/mt CFR Turkey for Russia origin last week and this week, according to market sources, even though the target price of exporters was $465/mt CFR. These sales prices translate to slightly below $440/mt FOB Black Sea. “The level of $460/mt CFR is rather low, considering current scrap and Chinese offers,” a Turkish trader said. Chinese offers have risen to $478-482/mt CFR Turkey, while indicative levels for ex-Malaysia billet are at $505-510/mt CFR.
However, some Russian billet sellers have needed to accelerate sales after the holidays, having no option to redirect volumes to other markets like North Africa, to Tunisia in particular. With the recent rise in rebar prices in Egypt, Russian billet sellers may try to book some tonnages to this destination, but so far Turkey remains the main outlet for Russia.
“Metalloinvest can sell directly, because they need to, but a lot of Russian mills are not offering, as it is hard to understand what the workable level is for now,” a trader commented. In his view, the highest tradable level for Russian material is at $465/mt CFR for February shipment in Turkey.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Russia billet is at $435-445/mt FOB Black Sea, considering the latest deals and offers, stable on average from late last week.