This week, trading in the Turkish billet market has almost come to a standstill with market sources awaiting more signals from the scrap side and the revival of both demand and supply in the coming week. At the same time, Russian suppliers still have positive expectations and believe that Turkish buyers will have to accept higher prices for import billet eventually.
Offers for import billet have been mainly reported at $580-595/mt CFR Turkey from different sources, but mainly for ex-Russia and ex-Donbass billets. On average, the price is stable over the past week, but the price range has narrowed by $10/mt. Also, an indicative level for ex-India billet has been at $620/mt CFR. Though a number of suppliers have kept prices stable from last week, the lowest levels seen from some smaller exporters at $570-575/mt CFR last week have disappeared. “Nothing is happening. The market is stable. Turkey bought enough and the suppliers sold enough, so there is no pressure on anyone. We will see what happens after two weeks,” a European trader said.
As SteelOrbis reported earlier, a deal from one Russian mill at $565/mt CFR was done a week ago, and, though some buyers still want to push the market to $550-560/mt CFR, these prices are not expected to be found. “There is not much billet allocation in the market, so it is a reason to wait for harder prices,” a Turkish trader said. According to some sources, for rather “clean” origins, Turkish buyers will have to pay a higher level of around $590/mt CFR to get volumes next week or so. Asian sellers have been out of the market due to the holiday and offers are expected at far above $600/mt CFR from next week. Algeria also does not have an export allocation at the moment.
In the domestic market in Turkey, a deal for 6,000 mt of billet has been reported at $620-625/mt ex-works and some of the market players believe such a level is too low to be widespread nowadays. Particularly, the workable price level in the Izmir region is at $645/mt ex-works, while in the Marmara region it is estimated at $630-640/mt ex-works.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Russia billet is at $555-565/mt FOB Black Sea, increasing by $5/mt from late last week. In terms of offering, Russian mills have not been too active either, expecting a better situation from February. The reference price has been increased, based on offers and market indications, though no deals have been reported this week.
The tradable level in North Africa for ex-Russia billet has been assessed at $580-590/mt CFR as the highest in some countries.
From next week, competition in the billet market will increase as Asian traders, who took positions with ex-ASEAN billet from mills before the Lunar New Year holidays, will come back. But market sources expect them to target the GCC market, Southeast Asia or Latin America more. There were some inquiries in Latin America last week with ex-Asia traders’ offers voiced at $640-650/mt CFR, but there has been no confirmation that a deal was finally closed.
