The market for billet is still facing weak buyer activity. Nevertheless, suppliers are making attempts to push through another price increase having limited volume of August production for sale (this mainly concerns integrated steel mills). At the Black Sea ports the prices have risen by $5-15/t, at the Caspian and Far Eastern ones – the lower end of the billet price range has risen by $5-10/t.
Last weak, billet was mainly in demand among SE Asian re-rollers and traders who work with Iranian market. Although this week the market was still active, most of the customers have already bought the required volumes. Some producers have reported demand from the Gulf buyers which traditionally buy the semis in large batches without re-sellers. But traders at the Black Sea ports have complained about rare deals which are only made for small lots of 2,000-3,000 tonnes.
At the Black Sea ports, Ukrainian billet is quoted at $475-480/t fob, Russian – at $480-485/t fob, against $465-475/t fob and $465-480/t fob respectively. At the beginning of the week, export deals for Turkish billet were reported at $485/t fob making doubtful the CIS mills'' increases. But after Turks raised their export prices, the CIS mills have had another chance for successful sales. For comparison, Turkish billet is now quoted at $495-505/t fob.
At the Caspian ports, Kazakhstan’s Kasting set export offers for August production on July 9th at $510/t fob ($500/t cpt Aktau), and Mechel – at $495/t fob this week. However, no deals have been reported so far. Still, it should not be surprise because at the beginning of last week Russian mills’ prices were $470-480/t fob, and based on the current c&f-prices for billet to Iranian re-rollers, the workable level is no higher than $485/t fob.
At the Far Eastern ports, Metalloinvest billet is quoted at $515-520/t fob, according to reports. Although last week Evraz Group billet changed hands at this level, now re-rollers are bidding at no higher than $510/t fob.
(Source: www.metalexpert-group.com )