This week has been very slow in the Turkish billet market as customers have been insisting on discounts and they consider some declines seen in import offers to be insufficient, while in general supply volumes have also been limited, resulting in weak trading activity. Some deals have been reported only in the local Turkish market, but with much lower volumes than usual.
On May 16, Turkey’s integrated producer Kardemir opened its billet sales at $550/mt for S235JR and at $565/mt for B420 grade, both on ex-works basis, which is $5/mt higher than the mills’ previous prices announced on April 26. The price has been considered too high by most market sources, so only 9,000 mt are heard to have been traded. “I heard sales of a couple of tonnes and that’s all… bids are at around $505-510/mt CFR Turkish Black Sea,” a Turkish mill said.
At the same time, in Izmir, a deal for 3,000 mt has been reported at $548/mt CFR, while an offer from another supplier in the region has been at $555/mt CFR, which is relatively stable compared to last week. The indicative billet price in the Marmara region is at $555-560/mt CPT.
The import billet market in Turkey has been even more sluggish than the local market. The tradable levels from the sellers' perspective for billet from Donbass, the Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia, have been assessed at $517-522/mt CFR, while those from Russia have been assessed at $520-525/mt CFR, though most bids, reported by a number of buyers, are only at $505-515/mt CFR for late June-July shipment. “The market is dead. There is only loading of previous booked cargoes. The Turks are pushing for $510-515/mt CFR with a slight delay in payment after discharging. But no seller agrees for now,” a trader said, commenting on the situation for Russian and Donbass billets, adding that, if such a weak situation continues, someone could accept these lower bids for small volumes for July shipment. Offers are still on the higher side for prompt shipment Russian billets, at $530/mt CFR, up slightly from the previous deals at $525-529/mt CFR reported last week. But no new deals have been heard for now.
“I believe there are very few volumes of billet in the market in general, so suppliers who have material will target not below $525/mt CFR,” a trader in Turkey said, adding that bids from clients are very low at $505-510/mt CFR for ex-CIS billets.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Russia billet has remained at $495-500/mt FOB Black Sea until new deals are confirmed in the market. There has been a rumor of an ex-Donbass cargo purchased by a trader at $509/mt FOB last week, but it has not been confirmed by the time of publication and, if true, it is for prompt shipment, which is not included in the reference price.
Offers for Asian billet to Turkey have decreased slightly from $545-555/mt CFR last week to $540-545/mt CFR for origins including both Indonesia and Malaysia. Though some small discounts on this new level are also possible, buyers are not eager to buy big volumes from Asia at the moment, waiting for a clearer situation in the scrap market.
