US billet prices have trended sideways since a month ago, while demand has begun to show some signs of improvement.
US billet prices have remained flat along with the US scrap prices in April, and domestic billet prices continue to be seen in the approximate range of $615 to $625/mt ($558 to $567/nt). The US scrap market is experiencing a price correction, signaling a possible decline in US shredded scrap prices next month, as a result, the pricing trend for the US billet market is going down.
Billet supply is still sufficient while US billet demand sees a small uptick along with the domestic mills' increasing operating capacity. Nevertheless, re-rollers are continuing to manage their inventory cautiously. They are refraining from buying billet a few months ahead of time and in large amounts as long as the uncertain market situation persists.
On the contrary to the US billet market, international billet prices have gone up approximately $100/mt from a month ago due to the strong trend of the international raw materials prices at the end of March. However, the international billet market started to slow down in mid-April as producers already bought the tonnages they needed in March. The current price for CIS billet is approximately in the range of $620 to $630/mt FOB and Turkish billet is offering at $640 to $650/mt FOB.
Total billet imports into the US in the first half of April (as of April 13, 2010) were 6,703 mt, a large decrease of 18,047 mt when compare to the figure of 24,750 mt in March. The main country that exported billet to the US during the period was Mexico, at 5,604 mt. Canada and United Kingdom also exported a smaller amount of billet to the US during the corresponding period.
The latest USITC data show that the total amount of US carbon billet exported in the month of February 2010 was 20,247 mt, which represents an increase of 2,417 mt month-over-month and an increase of 4,461 mt year-over-year. The main countries that imported US carbon billet in February were Taiwan, at 18,505 mt; Peru, at 980 mt; and Canada, at 671 mt. Other countries that imported smaller amounts of US carbon billet include Mexico and Russia.