Billet buyers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region are expected to close a couple more deals for large import billet lots from the CIS, taking into account their need to restock and sliding prices.
As SteelOrbis reported, earlier this week a 50,000 mt cargo was sold from Ukraine to Qatar at $452/mt CFR for December shipment. Currently, there are more buyers in the market seeking to buy large cargoes, but also targeting a lower level than the one fixed to Qatar. In particular, two buyers from the UAE are expected to buy billets in the coming 10 days or so, but both are foreseen to be aiming to buy at $430-435/mt CFR maximum. In the meantime, billet offers from Oman have been reported at $455-457/mt CPT UAE with no deals reported. Some re-rollers mentioned local billet offers in the UAE at $445/mt CPT, while the workable level is considered to be $5-10/mt lower.
Along with the increased business activity in the UAE, a large buyer from Saudi Arabia has just released an inquiry for around 50,000 mt of square billet for December shipment. The producer is expected to target $420-425/mt CFR.