This week, the uptrend in the import billet segment in Turkey has cooled off a bit and prices have declined in most offers. Still, Asian billet origins remain out of the focus of Turkish buyers while domestic and ex-Black Sea material is favored. However, the deals are mainly concluded for small and medium lots, considering the slowdown in trade in the rebar market. Import scrap prices remain stable and at a high level, and the price difference between Asian billet and scrap is still not wide enough for the mills to favor purchases of large semis volumes.
Instead, small buyers are dealing with domestic billet. In particular, an additional 8,000 mt were sold in the Iskenderun region at $510/mt ex-works. Another two mills in the same part of the country have traded 15,000 mt and 5,000 mt at $513/mt ex-works. In addition, there has been talk about a deal for 10,000 mt at $520-525/mt ex-works in the Iskenderun region, but most market players assume the price is too high according to the current market conditions. In the Izmir region, billet offers are at $505-510/mt ex-works and at around $512-515/mt CFR from the Marmara region, stable over the past week.
Currently, ex-China billet is assessed at $485-490/mt CFR for September shipments, down from $495-500/mt CFR earlier. No takers are seen as, despite the discount, the level is still high for buyers to make a decision regarding November delivery bookings. Ex-Indonesia material is offered globally at $455/mt FOB, which makes around $490/mt CFR, while ex-Malaysian billet is not offered firmly but evaluated at $495/mt CFR for September shipments. Ex-Ukraine billet offer has slid from one mill by $10/mt over the week to $490/mt CFR for September, with no takers reported.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Russia billet has settled at $440/mt FOB Black Sea, moving down by $5/mt over the past week. There have been reports about negotiations to Turkey at $463-465/mt CFR “for 3,000-5,000 mt for shipment at the end of August-mid September,” a source said. But in general, trading has still been slow and bids are hardly even at $460/mt CFR from most buyers.
“We are not in the market after a sale at $450/mt FOB [for Egypt], and current bids can be lower,” a Russian mill said. As for Egypt, there are still a lot of long positions held by traders, that have already arrived at Egyptian ports or will be there shortly, and traders are focusing on sales at a slightly higher level rather than taking new positions for Russian mills. Traders are targeting above $480-485/mt CFR in Egypt for wire rod grade billets with a delay of 20-30 days in payments.