Turkish billet buyers have been insisting on lower billet prices, seeing the decline in the scrap segment. There has been a lack of attractive billet offers lately, so only small-volume deals have been done in Turkey’s import billet market.
Most Chinese billet offers have been coming to Turkey at $505-510/mt CFR, moving up from the indications at $495-500/mt CFR last week. Traders are not offering actively in short positions any more, seeing the firm trend in the Chinese market, and having some expectations for a stable trend there in the near future.
At the same time, ex-Malaysia 150 mm billet, which is duty-free in Turkey, is still available at $530-535/mt CFR or so, while lower offers for 165 mm billet are no longer seen. “But this will not work out for buyers, while scrap [from the US] is at $360-365/mt CFR… For steel mills, the workable level is not above $500/mt CFR. Re-rollers could pay higher, but you must gather inquiries from all of them. No one will take 40,000-50,000 mt separately,” a Turkish trader said.
Only small-volume deals have been reported in the import billet market lately. In particular, 3,000 mt of ex-Russia billet for November shipment are confirmed to have been sold at $490-495/mt CFR Turkish Black Sea. Also, around $490/mt CFR has been available from the mill in Donbass, the Ukrainian territory occupied at the moment by Russian troops. The freight for small volumes from the Black Sea to Turkey is assessed at $25/mt, which results in FOB levels of $465-470/mt. Market sources are still awaiting more offers from Russian mills. Over the past week, the SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Russia billet has declined by $10/mt to $465-470/mt FOB Black Sea.
