After price increases for three consecutive months, US billet prices have come down in February.
Compared to last month, the US billet purchasing activity has stayed relatively stable. There is sufficient billet availability in the market, but with a moderate level of billet inventory, re-rollers are not buying aggressively for the time being.
Along with the recent price decrease on US shredded scrap, US billet prices have followed the downward trend and dropped by $20 to $30/mt from a month ago. Current domestic billet prices are in the level of $650 to $660/mt. Early anticipation for US billet pricing trend is to go sideways to slightly down during March.
According to the US Import Monitoring and Analysis System (SIMA), total billet imports into the US in January 2011 were 12,219 mt, reflecting an increase of 2,868 mt from December 2010. The primary billet exporters to the US during the period were: Canada, at 9,471 mt; and Mexico, at 2,610 mt. Other countries that exported smaller amounts of billet to the US include the United Kingdom and China.
The latest USITC data show that the total amount of US carbon billet exported in the month of December 2010 was 56,993 mt, which represent a significant increase of 52,966 mt when compared to the figure in November 2010. The main countries that imported US carbon billet in December 2010 were: Dominican Republic, at 26,554 mt; and Thailand, at 25,151 mt. Ecuador and Canada also imported smaller amounts of billet from the US.