The sentiment in Turkey’s square billet market remains on the pessimistic side and prices continue to slide. Local producer Kardemir has announced new billet sales in the domestic market at a level lower than the previous workable level from other local mills. The mill’s new offers have been settled at $670-675/mt ex-works depending on the steel grade, while earlier this week the general offer range for billet in Turkey stood at $685-700/mt ex-works. According to sources, Kardemir has succeeded in selling around 35,000-40,000 mt of billet locally and closed its sales. By the end of the day, the general domestic offer level for billet has been evaluated at $670-690/mt ex-works.
In addition, in the import segment most of the buyers are either silent or pushing for significant discounts. Specifically, the steel mills’ own billet production costs are considered to be lower compared to the import billet prices targeted by a majority of suppliers. In addition, some of them had previously restocked with relatively large volumes. The current market level for import billet in Turkey is evaluated at $615-635/mt CFR, $5/mt down over the day, including the latest ex-Donbass and ex-Russia billet deals and offers and Chinese indications reported at $630-635/mt CFR. The alternative origins, mainly from India and Malaysia, are on offer at $645-655/mt CFR and above, which is not considered workable.