Saudi Arabian rebar and billet markets still quiet

While the Saudi Arabian domestic billet and rebar markets had previously been going through a quiet period amid hot weather conditions and the Ramadan holiday, still no sign of improvement has been seen in the Saudi Arabia markets for these products although the first week in September is almost over.
 
In the first six months of 2012, Saudi Arabia was the top billet importer from Turkey, increasing its ex-Turkey billet import rate by 161 percent as compared to the same period of the previous year. However, recently there have been no new high volume billet transactions in the market in question.
 
Meanwhile, Turkey's current billet offers to Saudi Arabia are standing at $595-605/mt CFR Jeddah, for October shipments, while ex-CIS billet offers are at $580-590/mt CFR Jeddah. Even though the very recent return of market players from their holidays may initially appear to be the main reason behind the sluggishness in import order activities, the actual reason is the fact that ex-China finished steel offers are even lower than billet offers, which causes local billet buyers to adopt a more cautious approach.
 
On the other hand, in the Saudi Arabian domestic market, state-controlled rebar offers from local mills are at $745-760/mt CPT, while ex-Turkey rebar offers stand at $610-630/mt CFR Jeddah, on theoretical weight basis. Also, local traders' offers of Turkish origin rebar are at the level of $700-720/mt ex-warehouse.