With the recent price increase for
US shredded
scrap,
US billet prices are expected to go up in July as well.
Although
billet demand in the
US has stayed, more or less, the same from a month ago amid the continued stagnation of the
US longs markets, it is expected that
billet prices will follow the
US shredded
scrap pricing trend and rise by approximately $60/mt to the level of $395 to $405 /nt ($435 to $446 /mt).
The recent
US scrap price increase may also push finished product prices up slightly, though overall demand for
US long products market is still weak, so it is uncertain whether the markets will accept any price increases. Furthermore, re-rollers may adjust their
billet prices downward again if they don’t see any improvement in the finished product markets.
Internationally,
billet prices are strong, due to the continued raw and semi-finished materials demand from
Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries, in combination with the reduced
billet output from the
CIS producers. Last week, Turkish
billet exports were offered in the price range of $420 to $430 /mt FOB on actual weight basis for July/August shipments, while
billet export offers from the
CIS were at $400 to $410/mt FOB. Although slight softening was seen last week, prices have registered an increase of about $20 to $25 /mt when compared to a month ago.
The total amount of
billet imports into the
US in June 2009 was 9,062 mt, representing an increase of 5,734 mt from May. The main country that exported
billet to the
US during June was
Mexico, at 8,861 mt. United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and
India also exported some tonnages of billets to the
US during the month.
On the export side, the latest data from the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) show that the total amount of
US carbon
billet tonnage exported in May 2009 was 5,177 mt, which represents an increase of 2,248 mt from April. However, this figure reflects a significant decrease of 17,560 mt when compared to the figure of 22,737 mt in May 2008.
The main
US carbon
billet export destinations in May 2009 were:
Ecuador, at 1,668 mt; and
Brazil, Dominican Republic and Vietnam, with 1,000 mt each. Other countries that received smaller tonnages of
US carbon
billet during the period include
Canada,
Mexico,
Egypt and
Bermuda.