Domestic billet prices in Turkey, which were at $475-490/mt ex-works in the middle of last week, increased by $15/mt on the lower end and by $10/mt on the upper end in the second half of last week due to the sharp rises recorded in import scrap quotations in Turkey. As a result, domestic billet prices in Turkey had reached $490-500/mt ex-works towards the end of last week and are still at the same levels.
On the other hand, the ongoing sharp depreciation of the Turkish lira against the US dollar has caused buyers in the local Turkish rebar market to maintain a cautious stance towards purchases and has also caused billet buyers in the Turkish market to slow down their price inquiries.
Meanwhile, CIS-based suppliers’ billet export prices, which had been moving downwards for some time amid the weakness of demand in their export markets and given the competitive offers of Iranian suppliers, have increased slightly due to the rise seen in scrap prices. It is believed that, having already increased their billet offers to Turkey by $5/mt to $475-480/mt CFR at the beginning of the current week, CIS-based suppliers may increase their offers further with the support of higher scrap prices and increased Chinese billet quotations. On the other hand, Turkish buyers of billet are unwilling to import billet within the scope of Turkey’s inward processing regime (under this scheme mills have to give a commitment to export the finished products they produce from imported billet) as demand is at low levels in the finished steel export markets to which they usually conclude sales of large tonnages.