Turkish integrated steel producer Kardemir has announced its new billet sales prices for the domestic market, cutting prices quite significantly compared to the previous round of sales. One reason is the mill’s aim to spur sales while the market has been quite silent ahead of the holiday and due to ongoing financial issues. Another is the previously concluded low-priced import billet bookings reported earlier in June.
Over the past week, Kardemir has dropped its billet offers by $25/mt to $575/mt ex-works for S235JR grade and to $580/mt ex-works for B420 billet. No specific sales list has been revealed to the market yet, but some sources report the supplier has managed to trade around 20,000 mt. “Following all those cheap imports, [Kardemir’s price decrease] is very normal,” a trader said. As SteelOrbis reported earlier, the latest deals by Russian traders were closed at $530-535/mt CFR, versus $540-545/mt CFR in previous transactions, while Malaysia sold several cargoes at $540-545/mt CFR.
Other billet producers in Turkey have also decreased their local price ideas from last week’s $595-610/mt ex-works levels. In particular, the price idea in the Karabuk region is at $590/mt CPT, while in the Marmara region the latest price has been reported at $595/mt CPT. Offers in the Izmir and Iskenderun regions are now evaluated at $600/mt and $580-590/mt respectively, both on ex-works basis.