Trading for ex-Black Sea billet from Russian suppliers has revived in early February. Sellers have decided to provide small discounts on the initial offers announced at higher levels last week in order to be able to sell to Turkey, while Asian exporters are inactive.
According to market sources, up to 47,000 mt of ex-Russia and ex-Donbass billets (both traded by Russian traders) have been sold in total to Turkey this week. Of this, a few cargoes of 3,000 mt each have been sold for Russian origin material at around $445-450/mt CFR, translating to $425-430/mt FOB. The material is for early March shipment. This is slightly below the previous targets at not below $450/mt CFR for Russian billets in Turkey.
Also, a few cargoes for a total of 35,000 mt of billet from Donbass, the Ukrainian territory currently occupied by Russia, are heard to have been sold at $440/mt CFR. This is down by $5/mt from the previous targets at $445/mt CFR for ex-Donbass billets, but almost in line with the previous sales at $435-440/mt CFR done to Turkey in January.
Market sources said that Turkish buyers have been slightly more eager to buy from Russia, having a lack of options at the moment and as scrap prices have inched up. Kardemir has been out of the local billet market this week, focusing on longs sales instead. In addition, as some Chinese sellers have not yet returned from their holiday, most offers for Asian origins have been just indicative and not much below $470/mt CFR.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Russia billet has settled at $420-430/mt FOB Black Sea, down by $5/mt on average from last week, with the lower end losing $10/mt.