While domestic billet prices in Turkey were at $385-395/mt ex-works in the middle of last week, they reached $400-415/mt ex-works towards the end of the same week amid the rises seen in import prices of scrap and billet. As of the beginning of the current week, domestic billet prices in Turkey have increased further to $410-420/mt ex-works. Accordingly, prices in the local Turkish billet market have risen by a total of $25/mt over the past week. On the other hand, market sources state that this week's new price levels are considered to be on the high side by buyers and so demand in the local Turkish billet market has declined slightly compared to last week, with the new prices failing to gain acceptance.
Likewise, ex-CIS billet quotations have also continued their upward trend during the past week amid the rises seen in scrap quotations and also due to the sharp increases recorded in Chinese billet prices. As a result, ex-CIS billet offers to the export markets have moved up by $20/mt week on week to $415-435/mt CFR. However, demand for billet from the CIS region is still at low levels as Turkish producers consider offer prices to be on the high side and still prefer to buy import scrap instead of import billet due to its advantage in terms of lower production costs.
Meanwhile, Chinese billet export quotations have risen sharply over the past week, increasing by an average of $32.5/mt week on week, and are now at $470-485/mt FOB. Accordingly, they have failed to gain acceptance in the China's traditional export markets. Thus, strong demand has continued to be seen in the Far East for billets from Vietnam, Turkey and Iran. Under these circumstances, Chinese billet offers are much higher than other billet prices in the global market. As a result, demand for Chinese billet in the export markets is not expected to improve in the short term.