Will price cuts trigger steel billet sales in Turkey?

Early this week, Turkish mills' steel billet export offers were standing at $615-620/mt FOB on actual weight basis for shipments in late November and early December. Although these offers have remained unchanged as compared to the previous week, some offers $10/mt below mainstream price range were also available in the market in order to compete with the CIS suppliers' aggressive offers and also due to slack demand. Despite this, steel billet buyers in Turkish mills' export markets still anticipate further price cuts and thus demand has remained silent.
 
Towards the end of the week, Turkish mill Kardemir reduced its domestic steel billet prices by $30/mt with its price list issued on October 28. Accordingly, on the morning of October 28 Kardemir opened its sales for S235JR grade (St37) billets of 130 mm x 130 mm x 6-12 m size at the level of $585/mt ex-works, excluding VAT, and also opened its sales for MT III-A grade billets of the same size at the level of $590/mt ex-works, excluding VAT. The producer closed its steel billet sales within hours, after selling approximately 37,250 mt.
 
Since buyers in the Turkish domestic market have not concluded steel billet purchases for a while, it is known that these buyers need to purchase billet soon. Also, Kardemir's new billet price gained acceptance among buyers. Nevertheless, considering that scrap prices have not yet stabilized, some buyers are still postponing their steel billet bookings, anticipating further price reductions.