Over the past week, domestic billet prices in Turkey have continued to move upwards in line with the increases in global scrap prices. Market sources state that the rapid uptrend of scrap prices has resulted in the strengthening of buyers' expectations of further increases in domestic billet prices, which has lead them to accelerate their billet bookings.
In the given period, prices in the local Turkish billet market have increased by $15/mt on the lower end and by $10/mt on the upper end to $515-530/mt ex-works. According to market sources, a Turkish producer in the Iskenderun region has sold 80,000-90,000 mt of billet in total to several rolling mills in the nearby Payas region at $515/mt ex-works, for January delivery.
Meanwhile, ex-CIS billet offers to Turkey have continued to increase, rising by $27.5/mt on average week on week to $515-520/mt CFR. As ex-CIS billet offers on FOB basis to the export markets have reached $510/mt, ex-CIS billet offers to Turkey on CFR basis are expected to indicate a further slight increase in the coming days.
Besides the rises in scrap prices, Chinese billet suppliers have not adopted an aggressive pricing policy in the export markets and this has also played a role in the recent increases in global billet quotations. Chinese billet offers, which are currently at $540-550/mt FOB, are not expected to record sharp declines in the short term as Chinese mills are focusing on meeting the needs of their domestic market against the backdrop of the production cuts being implemented in China.