<span>CIS billet suppliers are getting ready to New Year holidays, so buying activity has been observed only in the Caspian Sea region this week. Most sellers have already managed to fill order books for January and those, who have the remainders, left the market for a while, preliminarily having raised offers by $5-10/t to all destinations. However, prices are expected to race up again in mid January, as most buyers prepare for holidays as well. <br> Producers have more than enough reasons to be bullish. Firs of all, these are continuing growth of scrap quotations and forecasts about their further increase till the end of January. Moreover, square billet remains in short supply in the market, while demand has been rather strong lately as re-rollers (mainly from the Middle East) have been willing to buy enough material for the holiday period. Besides, not all foreign producers buy semis on long-term expectations, because they are not totally sure prices to keep moving up in February. <br> Major international traders are more optimistic about future market situation, so they continue to buy square billet this week in order to go long. <br> As a result, offers of CIS billet have risen to $605-610/t FOB at Azov-Black Sea ports in the past week and the latest bookings have been made at $595-610/t FOB. Besides, the number of suppliers is limited. Only Electrostal, Metalloinvest and IUD have been more or less active. Syrian and Jordanian buyers were still interested in CIS semis and UAE buyers also became somewhat more active, being ready to buy the material at $600-610/t FOB. In fact, the current offers are quite reasonable, given that Turkish suppliers quote about $630/t FOB. <br> Meanwhile, suppliers of Russian material at the Caspian ports continue to follow the upward trend successfully: prices for billet of January production have gone up by $5-10/t in a week, to $610-630/t FOB. Iranian customers have become more active recently, but rather on their desire to use the material as a financial instrument, than <br> on growing demand for square billet in the country (traders’ stocks are still high). A large lot (about 60,000 t) of semis to be produced in January from Metalloinvest has been reportedly sold at $610/t FOB Astrakhan ($25/t up in three weeks). <br> Prices for January production from REMZ have reached $625-630/t FOB this week against $610-620/t FOB in mid December. Iranian buyers used to bid at $615/t FOB, but now they are reportedly ready to book at the announced levels. This is probably connected with rumours that quotations of the material will climb to $650/t FOB very soon. In fact, suppliers have all reasons for the rise, because semis offers of January production will be extremely limited next week. <br> The situation at Far Eastern ports is still unfavourable for CIS exporters, even despite limited supply. Asian buyers are inactive, doing their best to resist the upward trend. In particular, Philippine re-rollers have refrained from making new semis purchases before holidays, having stopped production till at least mid January. Taiwanese customers, in turn, are also calm as they have no urgent need in semis. As for Vietnamese mills, mostly local suppliers cover their needs in feedstock. Thus, prices for Russian billet are largely nominal – $575-585/t FOB ($5-10/t in a week). No deals have been reported. However, suppliers do not give up, hoping demand from Asia to recover after the holiday period. At the same time, already started growth of square billet prices from Taiwan and South Korea will also support CIS sellers in their upward moves. At present, initial C&F-prices for Asian semis are by $15-20/t higher than for Russian material. – source: <a href="http://www.metalexpert-group.com/"><u><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Times New Roman">www.metalexpert-group.com</font></u></a> </span>