Turkish billet manufacturers are ready to negotiate

The principled attitude of Turkish billet exporters to pricing last week was replaced by softer supply figures, from about $ 450-460 /tonne in the previous week to about $ 445-450 /tonne this week.

Easing sentiment swept across the long product-related markets amid several purchases of cheaper scrap from Turkey, reinforcing the bearish trend in the finished and semi-finished product markets. The sale of rebar at the equivalent of $ 450 /tonne FOB effective weight to Southeast Asia paved the way for lower billet prices. Sources, however, insist that the market for scrap is in scrap, as well as the markets for semi-finished products and long products as a consequence.

Turkish blanks are available, some with very short, almost instantaneous readiness to load, leading the market to believe that some pre-Madan sales will be around $ 440 /tonne on key chains. They could possibly be even lower, depending on the flexibility of the mill maintenance plans. Pre-sales were made by traders this week at $ 450-460 /t in Tunisia /Morocco /Egypt. Therefore, it is expected that by the beginning of a quiet month, the volume of billets in Turkey /CIS will reach 420-425 USD /t and the market has a chance to reboot.

There were no Turkish billet sales in the market last week, but a Ukrainian integrated billet producer sold a very large lot to Asia for the equivalent of $ 435 /tonne on the Black Sea. Meanwhile, another scrap processing plant was in the tender for 10,000 tons at a price of 430 USD /ton. Two major tenders were also held by Middle Eastern and Latin American manufacturers, which are still being held Friday last week.

With new bids for scrap metal at $ 305 /tonne CFR in Turkey for HMS 1 & 2 80/20 currently being rejected by suppliers, there are indications that the scrap price could strengthen if it does not recover. This provided some support for the rapidly softening stock market, traders said.