During the past week, CIS-based billet suppliers have continued to increase their export prices with prices moving up by $10/mt on the lower end and by $5/mt on the upper end week on week to $550-555/mt FOB.
Despite the falling trend of Chinese billet export quotations, the ongoing increases in ex-CIS billet prices have been supported by the fairly full order books of CIS-based billet suppliers and also by the sustained high levels of global scrap prices and also of billet prices in CIS-based suppliers’ target markets.
It is observed that ex-CIS billet offers to Turkey have increased by an average of $7.5/mt week on week to $570-575/mt CFR. SteelOrbis has been informed that Turkish billet buyers have concluded ex-CIS billet deals over the past week at $570/mt CFR. On the other hand, a Turkish steel mill has concluded an ex-CIS billet purchase for its plant in Algeria at $575/mt CFR, also according to market sources.
Additionally, Egyptian buyers’ demand for ex-CIS billet has improved slightly with some deals concluded over the past week at $555-565/mt CFR. In the current week, the most recent billet deal concluded by Egyptian buyers was from Russia for 25,000 mt of billet at $565/mt CFR.