Although US billet demand is tepid, US billet prices have increased along with domestic scrap prices and international billet prices.
As there is still no significant improvement to be seen on the US finished products market, re-rollers are not buying billet aggressively and trying to manage the billet inventories at low levels moving toward the year end. Therefore, billet availability is sufficient in the market, and re-rollers should be able to get any billet tonnages they may need.
However, with the recent domestic price increase on shredded scrap and the strong international billet prices in the Middle East, US billet prices have followed suit and gone up approximately $15/mt to $565- $575/mt in November. Going forward, market sources expect the US billet prices will go sideways or slightly up if the US shredded scrap prices increase further in December.
According to the US Import Monitoring and Analysis System (SIMA), total billet imports into the US in October were 15,456 mt, reflecting a decrease of 5,747 mt from the previous month. The primary billet exporters to the US during the period were: Mexico, at 9,509 mt; and Canada, at 4,557 mt. Other countries that exported smaller amounts of billet include Japan and the United Kingdom.
The latest USITC data show that the total amount of US carbon billet exported in the month of September was 33,806 mt, which represent a significant increase of 23,233 mt when compared to the figure in August. The main countries that imported US carbon billet in September were: Philippines, at 30,884 mt; and Taiwan, at 2,535 mt. Other countries that imported smaller amounts include Canada and Mexico.