During the past week, CIS-based billet producers’ billet export prices have moved down by $10/mt on the lower end and by $5/mt on the upper end and are currently at $490-510/mt FOB. The ongoing weakness of demand in Turkey and Egypt - the main export markets of CIS-based suppliers - is also reported to have contributed to the declines seen in ex-CIS billet prices.
CIS-based steel mills’ billet offers to Turkey are currently at $505-510/mt CFR. It is also heard that CIS-based traders are giving lower billet export offers to Turkey at $490-495/mt CFR, though no new deal has yet been concluded in this price range.
Meanwhile, ex-CIS billet offers to Egypt are now in the range of $515-520/mt CFR. Despite the ongoing infrastructure and construction projects in Egypt, Egyptian buyers’ demand for billet from the CIS region is still at low levels following its strong trend seen until the beginning of September, and so ex-CIS billet purchases in the North African country are only being concluded in line with buyers’ needs.
Additionally, having declined sharply in the last two weeks of September and after making a downward start to October, scrap prices indicated an upward movement yesterday, October 5. As a result, the downward trend of global billet prices is expected to come to an end in the short term.