Reuters reported price rally at Black Sea has already been ...
Reuters reported price rally at Black Sea has already been showing signs of running out of steam as demand remains weak, with no sign of recovery until early 2009.
The report cited a steel trader as saying that “'We have seen billet offered at even USD 470 per tonne to USD 480 per tonne. But over the past week we have started to see prices coming off again. Currently you can find billet in the Turkish market below USD 400 per tonne.”
He told Reuters that “We have seen strong buying from Iraq, which buoyed the prices in the Turkish domestic market, ' he said, adding the buying was around 100,000 tonnes in just a couple of weeks. But because there is no demand in the export markets, mainly Dubai, the price has could not hold at those levels for long.”
Turkish steel stockiest rushing to renew their depleted inventories with cheap material, combined with a wave of buying from several Middle Eastern countries, pushed billet and rebar prices higher in first 15 days of November.
Turkish scrap dealers bought steel scrap at USD 290 per tonne to USD 300 per tonne on CIF basis up from USD 150 per tonne levels. Billet prices went up from USD 230 levels to USD 430 levels on FOB basis.