It is observed that Turkish billet producers have kept their domestic offers stable over the past week. Demand in the local Turkish billet market is still weak amid the weakness of the Turkish lira against the US dollar, the cautious stance of both buyers and sellers in the billet market, and also due to Turkish buyers’ expectations that prices will decline. Despite the downward pressure exerted on domestic billet prices by buyers, Turkish billet mills’ prices are still in the range of $450-460/mt ex-works. Market sources state that Turkish billet producers want to see the price levels that will be recorded in new scrap deals before revising their domestic billet quotations.
On the other hand, Egyptian buyers have been forced to cancel their billet orders from Turkey and the CIS region after the Egyptian government decided to impose 25 percent duty on billet and rebar imports. Amid the surplus resulting from these cancelations, Turkish buyers have exerted pressure on both import and domestic offer prices of billet.
SteelOrbis has been informed that CIS-based mills’ billet offers to Turkey are currently at $435-450/mt CFR, while the lower end of this price range is reportedly for orders for large tonnages and spot shipments. Meanwhile, market sources state that, although Turkish steelmakers are under pressure, they are struggling to compete with import billet quotations as they cannot reduce their domestic billet prices to the levels in question.