US billet prices have gone up along with domestic scrap prices in August, although the US billet market remains slow.
Re-rollers are not in any hurry to purchase billet currently as they have adequate inventory. Furthermore, there is still no significant demand improvement on the US long products market, therefore re-rollers are still hesitating to buy billet in large amounts. Although billet demand is tepid, billet prices have followed the US shredded scrap price to increase approximately $35/mt to $555-$565/mt in August.
Similar to the domestic billet prices, international billet prices have been increasing as well. Turkish billet is being offered at $555- $560/mt FOB and CIS producers are offering billet at $545-$550/mt FOB. Prices have increased approximately $50/mt from a month ago due to lack of billet supply in Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa.
According to the US Import Monitoring and Analysis System (SIMA), total billet imports into the US in the first half of August (as of August 17, 2010) was 9,786 mt, while total billet imports into the US in July was 25,146 mt. The primary billet exporter to the US during the period was Mexico, at 8,466 mt, while Canada, Brazil, United Kingdom and Japan exported smaller amounts.
The latest USITC data show that the total amount of US carbon billet exported in the month of June 2010 was 27,123 mt, which represent a small increase of 1,708 mt when compared to the figure in May. The main countries that imported US carbon billet in June were: Dominican Republic, at 14,887 mt and Ecuador, at 10,000 mt. Other countries that imported smaller amounts include Taiwan, Canada, Mexico and Singapore.