The limited billet availability in the import segment continues to weigh on the Turkish market, leading to acceptance of higher prices in some cases. In fact, there are few billet offers from Russia and Donbass, while the prices for the alternative non-toxic origins are mostly unworkable, especially from Asia. As a result, a billet cargo from Ukraine was sold to Turkey at the end of last week at a price $10/mt above the upper end of the general import price range available at the time.
A Ukrainian mill has sold around 15,000 mt of billet to one of the main Turkish buyers at around $530/mt CFR for a non-prompt shipment, SteelOrbis has learned. The price is considered to be a difficult one for Russian sellers to achieve at the moment. The most recent offers for Donbass billet have been voiced from $505/mt CFR to the northern part of Turkey, while some sellers admitted they would test $510-515/mt CFR to the same region. In addition, some sellers have been fishing to get $530/mt CFR Iskenderun for the same Donbass origin, but buyers for now are not ready to accept. Previously, a total of 15,000 mt of ex-Donbass billet was traded to Turkey at $510-515/mt CFR for November shipment, as SteelOrbis reported.
The SteelOrbis daily reference price for ex-Black Sea Russian billet has inched down by $2.5/mt since the end of last week to $480-490/mt FOB.
“There are very limited amounts of billet in the market and actually that is one of the reasons why [Turkish] mills are active in scrap and have accepted price increases, especially when Asian offers are not workable,” a trader said. The latest FOB levels from Asia are now at $510-515/mt FOB and up to $520/mt FOB particularly from China. One of the suppliers has traded around 30,000 mt of billet to Latin America at $512/mt FOB Indonesia. However, to Turkey such a level would translate to around $540-550/mt CFR and for delivery at the end of January.
According to sources, currently, on the whole the only option for having an acceptable lead time for a non-toxic origin and a price close to the ex-Ukraine deal is Algeria. One of the Algerian mills sold 20,000 mt early this month to a trader at $501/mt FOB for December shipments. Market players assume this position may be offered to Turkey at around $533-535/mt CFR, unless it has already been sold.
In the local Turkish market, the billet price is mainly evaluated at $540-545/mt ex-works in the Izmir and Iskenderun regions, following Kardemir’s sales last week at $525-535/mt ex-works depending on the grade.