With scrap prices dropping by nearly $30/long ton in September and most indicators pointing at a $40-$50/long ton decrease this month, US billet prices have continued their downtrend from last month, declining approximately $20/mt since early September. However, US prices bound for export in the range of $540-$550/mt FOB mill are not finding too much interest internationally, as other billet sources, such as Russia, are offering at up to $30/mt less.
While buyers had been holding off making purchases in the last month as they waited for billet prices to hit bottom, sources tell SteelOrbis that the end to billet's price downtrend may be in sight-scrap prices usually make a seasonal uptick in Q4, which will lift up billet prices as well. But beyond getting the billet price trend to reverse, billet suppliers in the US and beyond are especially concerned with "doing business while achieving healthy margins," according to Uğur Dalbeler, chairman of IREPAS and the billet suppliers' committee at the SteelOrbis Fall 2012 Conference & 67th IREPAS Meeting held in Munich this week.