In Turkey, domestic prices for billet have increased significantly, following stronger scrap prices and scarce import billet availability. However, the targeted levels would still be more suitable more for merchant bar producers rather than for rebar mills.
According to sources, one of the mills in the Iskenderun is offering at $565/mt ex-works, versus its latest deals at $550-555/mt ex-works around 10 days ago. In the Izmir region, billet offers are rare and are at $560-575/mt ex-works. A week back, domestic billet prices in Turkey stood were at $545-555/mt ex-works. Kardemir was expected to announce billet sales today, but did not. The anticipated price was around $545-555/mt ex-works.
In the import segment, prices are somewhat uneven and depend on the supplier and the lead time. The highest offers are still coming from Asian mills, at $560/mt CFR from Malaysia and $555/mt CFR from Indonesia. In addition, South Korea is offering at $540/mt FOB which means around $575/mt CFR. All of these offers are for long lead times and are not workable. Offers from Algeria for position cargoes have been reported at around $550/mt CFR, while the latest deals have been closed at slightly lower levels. Ukraine indicates $550-560/mt CFR for end-of-January shipments.
As for Russia and Donbass, there are still indications at $517-518/mt CFR, in line with the previous deals for 20,000 mt to the Karabuk region. There has been talk about sales at $520/mt CFR and slightly above and, generally, according to sellers, around $520-530/mt CFR should be the market level for shipments with short delivery times.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Russia billet has been corrected down by $6.5/mt on average today from yesterday to $492-505/mt FOB Black Sea, with the midpoint at $498.5/mt FOB on November 29. This level is also $1.5/mt below that reported on Friday, November 24. Though some suppliers still assess offer prices at not below $505/mt FOB. Given the limited acceptance in the main destination, namely, Turkey, some sellers see the workable prices at lower levels. “Now there are some inquiries at $495-500/mt FOB. This is the best price nowadays,” a trader, dealing with ex-Russia billet sales, said. Also, another source commented that for ex-Donbass billet a fair price would be $492-495/mt FOB now, given the increased competition between some traders in Turkey.