Despite a certain resistance from global buyers, Iranian billet suppliers have remained determined to get higher prices in the coming deals. Apart from some positive sentiments emerging in the global steel market recently, Iranian steel mills have sought to gain support from the approaching threat of sharply rising gas prices and increases in supply shortages as Iran enters the winter season. Typically, in the winter season, the Iranian government is forced to limit gas supply in order to compensate for the gap between production and demand locally. “The production of DRI has already been reduced considerably. As a result, steel billet production is about to follow the same trend,” a representative of an Iranian steel mill stated. “The government announced that if it is colder and if we have a gas shortage, the first industry to be hit is the steel industry,” a representative of another major Iranian steel mill said, confirming the developments. Nevertheless, the higher offers of ex-Iran steel billet at $460-470/mt FOB, with which Iranian billet mills started to test the market last week, have remained out of the range of interest of global buyers. “They [Iranian mills] want to sell, but that is unworkable,” an Iranian trader commented. Meanwhile, a few transactions have been closed this week with deal prices having increased by $2-7/mt compared to the levels of last week. In particular, a 10,000 mt cargo of ex-Iran steel billet has been traded at $452/mt FOB, while a 30,000 mt cargo has changed hands at $453/mt FOB. Besides, a small lot of 5,000 mt of ex-Iran steel billet has been sold at $455/mt FOB. “We have inquiries on our table, with buyers being ready to pay $450-455/mt FOB. However, we are in negotiations with steel mills to get those prices as they target higher levels,” a market source stated.