Early this week, trading activity in the CIS slowed down due to the Easter and Labor Day holidays, while ex-CIS billet quotations in the global market have continued to decrease after the holidays.
As many Egyptian buyers cancelled their import billet contracts after the Egyptian government imposed safeguard duty on billet imports, ex-CIS billet supplies in the global market increased and there have been plenty of offers at different price levels. CIS-based billet producers were in particular trying to attract a share of demand in the Far East and decreased their prices amid fierce competition with Iranian suppliers. CIS-based billet producers started this week in a quieter mood due to the holidays and have maintained their prices unchanged at $425-430/mt FOB. However, this week lower billet offer prices are being given by trading companies to the global market as compared to last week.
Following the announcement of import duty on billet in Egypt, CIS-based billet suppliers also directed their sales to Turkey, which is another important market for suppliers in the CIS, and this week’s ex-CIS billet offers to Turkey have continued to vary. While CIS-based producers’ billet offers to Turkey have mostly been at $425-430/mt FOB for June shipments, trading companies’ quotations have been at $415-420/mt FOB. While there are several offer prices at $430-440/mt CFR from trading companies, there are also some offers at $440-445/mt CFR, though buyers in the Turkish market, where demand is already slack, are unwilling to conclude billet bookings at these latter price levels. As they are able to purchase billet at $440/mt ex-works in their domestic market, Turkish buyers have lowered their price expectations further for ex-CIS billet, especially after a Turkish producer concluded a billet deal to Saudi Arabia at $453/mt CFR, due to the softening in import scrap prices, and also since there are still billet cargoes available in the market as a result of cancelations of contracts by Egyptian buyers.