Billet trading has become slightly more active in Turkey this week with some transactions closed both in the domestic and import markets. The domestic sales, however, have been limited only to Kardemir’s deals, while other suppliers prefer to watch the developing situation. On the import side, buyers mainly remain uninterested in large bookings and only small lots have been booked from Russia and Donbass at discounted prices compared to last week. The price drop in the scrap segment and the slow buying in the longs market are the main reasons for the weak billet pricing overall.
This week, local integrated producer Kardemir has traded close to 50,000 mt of billet at $610-615/mt ex-works, while the previous round of sales was done at $630-635/mt ex-works. Clearly, the market has been weakening due to falling import scrap prices, but also due to slack domestic and export sales activity for rebar. “Everything has frozen here until the elections and even after that it will not rebound sharply as it is still not clear enough how the rebuilding of the Iskenderun region will be managed,” a trader told SteelOrbis. Other billet suppliers are not quite active in Turkey while indicative levels of $600-620/mt ex-works have been evaluated by some market players. In the Marmara region, according to sources, some small lots have been available at $605-610/mt CPT. Last week, the prices domestically stood at $630-640/mt ex-works.
In the import segment, the workable billet prices in Turkey by the end of the week have settled at $560-575/mt CFR for 3,000 mt prompt shipment lots, mainly closed to the northern part of the country. According to sources, up to 15,000 mt have been booked from Russia mainly at the upper end of the mentioned range and even up to $578-580/mt CFR in some transactions. The ex-Donbass material is mainly priced at $565-575/mt CFR, while earlier the sellers of both Donbass and Russian origins were targeting $580-890/mt CFR. Aside from these, there are offers from China at $560-575/mt CFR depending on the seller, but there are no takers due to the long lead times and the issues with export licences for longs.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Russia billet has declined by $5/mt to $540-550/mt FOB Black Sea, given the latest deal prices and weakened sentiments. Most Russian suppliers have been either focusing on the Turkish market, even though the price ideas of buyers have been going down, or have been out of the market.
In North Africa, buying has been close to zero as “the dollar issue is still huge in Egypt,” a trader said. In East Africa, the reference billet price was in the range of $580-590/mt CFR, but in these markets, apart from Russian suppliers, a number of Asian exporters have been active, making competition tough.
Demand has not improved from Latin America so far, but is expected to pick up by the end of next week. But buyers are expected to target below $600/mt CFR, down from an ex-ASEAN deal at $610-615/mt CFR reported two weeks ago.