Both CIS and Turkish billet prices have this week again registered a decrease on the back of the softening prices of rebar, merchant bar and wire rod in the overall Europe markets and also due to the weak billet demand in general,.
Some rolling mills in the local Turkish market have been producing rebars on a subcontract basis for producers with EAFs, while some other rolling mills seem to have completely halted their production until such time as the markets recover. Rolling mills in Turkey's Iskenderun region are reported to be luckier compared to the other regions in the country, in particular due to the business they do with Iraq. However, prices are declining in the Turkish long products market in general. In addition to the decreasing long product prices on Turkish lira basis in Turkey, rebar prices have this week finally softened to $400/mt ex-warehouse excluding VAT on US dollar basis following the fall in value of the Turkish lira against the US dollar. Meanwhile, wire rod prices in this market have softened to $425-435/mt ex-works excluding VAT, and merchant bar prices have declined to $450-480/mt ex-works excluding VAT. As a result of such declines in long products and the continuing softening trend in scrap prices, Turkish billet export offers have this week decreased to the range of $370-390/mt FOB Turkey.
Meanwhile, CIS billet export offers have this week also weakened significantly. While it is observed that there have this week been offers at price levels of $345-360/mt FOB Ukraine, demand for these levels has been too weak. With scrap offers seen at $228/mt FOB Ukraine, market sources feel that billet prices may soften further, especially as it is thought that there have been some scrap offers below the level in question.