Turkey’s Kardemir has opened new sales for 150 mm x 150 mm square billet to local buyers at levels in line with general market pricing, with its products available on December 3 at TRY 2,330/mt ($405/mt) ex-works for S235JR and at TRY 2,360/mt ($410/mt) ex-works for MT III-A grade, excluding VAT.
It took Kardemir only a couple of hours to close the sales, with at least 88,250 mt of billet sold. Sources say this means that the local customers in the Karabuk region have been hungry to restock for a while.
Other billet sellers in Turkey’s local market have been offering at $405-415/mt ex-works depending on the producer. Some higher levels have also been voiced, though nothing far above $410-415/mt ex-works is considered workable at the moment.
On the import side, realistic ex-CIS offers were reported at $400-415/mt CFR, up by around $5-10/mt over the past week. Since the end of last week, small lots for December shipments were booked within $395-400/mt CFR depending on the region. However, overall Turkey’s activity in buying large volumes of billet imports is not strong, SteelOrbis understands.
$1 = TRY 5.75
