Although the US billet market remains slow due to tepid demand, US billet prices have gone up approximately $50/mt along with scrap in January.
Since US shredded scrap prices increased by approximately $50/long ton in early January, US billet prices have increased by about the same amount. Currently, domestic billet prices range between $510 and $520/mt.
With the significant scrap prices increases that have taken place over the past two months, US billet suppliers have had little choice but to raise their prices accordingly. However, billet buying activity remains slow in January due to weak demand, while billet supplies are plentiful. Furthermore, even though longs producers are also pushing for price hikes, demand for long products also remains soft. Re-rollers are generally refraining from buying much billet until they see a real pick-up in steel demand, and therefore, billet purchasing activity is not expected to increase significantly in February.
On the international front, increasing scrap prices have propped up the billet pricing trend as well. CIS producers are now offering billet at $460 to $470/mt FOB, while Turkish billet export offers are at $480 to $490/mt FOB. These offers reflect increases of approximately $40/mt from a month ago.
The total amount of billet imports into the US in December 2009 was 14,483 mt, representing an increase of 2,895 mt from November 2009 and a slight increase of 500 mt from December 2008. The main countries that exported billet to the US during December 2009 were: Mexico, at 10,274 mt; and Canada, at 4,025 mt. Other countries that also exported billet to the US in smaller amounts during the period were United Kingdom and China.
On the other hand, the latest data shows that the amount of US carbon billet exported in November was increased significantly to 81,184 mt, which was a significant increase of 71,183 mt when compared October 2009 and an increase of 79,959 mt when compared to November 2008. US carbon billets in November 2009 were mainly exported to: Taiwan, at 29,938 mt; Ecuador, at 18,331 mt; Dominican Republic, at 17,013 mt; and Chile, at 15,531. Canada, Mexico, and India also imported some US carbon billet during the corresponding period.