As a result of the scrap purchase activity carried out by Turkish billet producers since last week, the Turkish billet market has registered an uptrend due to the lack of any slackening in scrap quotations.
After a Turkish billet producer early this week announced price levels of $472-475/mt + VAT ex-works, billet sales activity at these prices has been observed in the local market in Turkey, while the latest offers in the market are at $485-500/mt + VAT.
Meanwhile, CIS billet producers have been faced with raw material price increases after their holidays and no definite billet price levels were heard from this region at the beginning of this week. Then, in mid-week, billet prices from the CIS increased to $450/mt FOB from the pre-holiday levels of $425-430/mt FOB. Also, it is expected that ex-CIS billet prices for February shipments will likely increase by $10/mt. While CIS billet producers had been selling mostly to North Africa in the pre-holiday period, they have now again started to give billet offers to the export markets in general. It is thought that the billet price levels from the CIS region will be clearer as of next week.
Whereas Turkish billet producers had last week sold material to the Far East, they have this week started to give billet offers again at their revised prices to the Middle East, North Africa and the Far East. Most buyer markets think that the new price levels are too high and that it will take time before they will gain acceptance.