The US billet market remains slow in light of lukewarm domestic billet demand.
US re-rollers continue to purchase billet only to meet their production needs, and because there has been no significant improvement in US domestic billet demand, there is still sufficient billet availability in the market, leaving prices neutral from couple weeks ago. Currently, the US domestic billet prices are still in the range of $670 to $680/mt.
Additionally, it is expected that US billet purchasing activities will follow a similar trend in May.
According to the US Import Monitoring and Analysis System (SIMA), total billet imports into the US in March were 12,017 mt, reflecting a decrease of 3,806 mt from February. The primary billet exporters to the US during the period were: Canada, at 6,812 mt; Mexico, at 2,789 mt; and Brazil, at 1,903 mt. Other countries that exported smaller amounts of billet to the US include Japan and the United Kingdom.
The latest USITC data show that the total amount of US carbon billet exported in the month of February was 31,385 mt, which represent a decrease of 4,674 mt when compared to the figure in January. The main countries that imported US carbon billet in February were: Taiwan, at 18,821 mt; and Morocco, at 11,101 mt. Canada also imported smaller amounts of billet from the US in the corresponding period.