Continuation of the previous week trends was witnessed last week at steel market at Black Sea when longs remained unchanged because of producers will while flats prices have raised once again.
Producers of billets were quoting at around USD 600 per tonne FOB Black Sea average levels although Turkish material was available at the same price range. However one of the biggest mills was below this level in the range of USD 590 per tonne and all others were in the range of USD 600 per tonne to USD 610 per tonne. Some quantities were proposed by traders from port stocks at USD 570 per tonne. We also understand that buyer’s idea of price was also on this level.
In general, the producers are keeping away from market and are expected to come back not before end of the May break. They must expect start of new scrap buying from Turkey and price recovery.
For finished longs similar situation prevailed as producers were defending reached positions.
Finished flats keep generally stable. Some price update is seen for the Ukrainian material that added USD 10 per tonne to USD 15 per tonne for both HRC and CRC.
It seems that the May break was already felt on the market as the activity definitely slowed down last week.