US billet prices went up along with domestic scrap prices in March, while domestic billet demand stayed flat and supply remained sufficient.
After the US shredded scrap prices went up by approximately $50/long ton ($49.21/mt) in early March, US billet prices have followed suit and increased by the same amount. Currently, domestic billet prices are in the level of $560 to $570/mt. With the anticipation of US shredded scrap going up by another good step in April, there is a possibility that US billet prices will have one more price increase next month.
Nevertheless, there is still no significant improvement on billet purchasing activity. Billet demand in the US stays more or less the same compared to a month ago and re-rollers are able to buy billet as much as they want, however, re-rollers continue to refrain from buying billet in large amounts due to market uncertainty on the real demand from the long product and end-user market. Re-rollers' billet inventory is at moderate level for the time being.
On the international side, CIS producers are offering billets at $530-535/mt FOB, while Turkish billet is selling at $550-555/mt FOB. Prices have jumped approximately $80 to $90/mt from two weeks ago due to increasing international scrap prices and tight billet supply in the Middle East and southern European regions. With the strength of the international raw material market, market sources expect international billet prices will continue to go up in the short term.
Total billet imports into the US in the first half of March (as of March 16, 2010) were 11,514 mt, a decrease of 2,275 mt from February. Major countries that exported billet to the US during the period were: Mexico, at 6,972 mt; Canada, at 2,347 mt; and Brazil, at 1,988 mt. United Kingdom and Germany also exported a smaller amount of billet to the US during the corresponding period.
Meanwhile, the amount of US carbon billet export was decreased significantly from the end of 2009 . Latest data shows that the amount of US carbon billet exported in the month of January 2010 was 17,830 mt, which represents a large decrease of 59,535 mt month-over-month, but an increase of 13,302 mt year-over-year. The main country that imported US carbon billet in January was Taiwan, at 13,298 mt. Other countries that imported smaller amount of US carbon billet include Ecuador, Canada and Mexico.