One of the key local billet suppliers in Turkey Kardemir has opened its square billet sales on August 26 at $590/mt ex-works for S235JR grade and at $595/mt ex-works for B420 quality. The mill’s previous price was $600-610/mt ex-works and only limited sales were concluded back then. In the current round of the sales, according to sources, the trade is also slow. Some report Kardemir managed to sell only 8,500 mt at the announced price. “The price is right as per the rebar offers, but the thing is that the market was waiting for lower offers, being confused by low deals for ex-Russia billet and unclear scrap,” a trader said.
Earlier this week a few ex-Russia billet sales were concluded at $530-540/mt CFR level while the indicative offer level was voiced at $550-555/mt CFR. Some of the bids are below $520/mt CFR levels for large volumes, but most of the market sources admit that the correlation between billet scrap and rebar has lost its ground, at least for now.