<span>CIS semis and longs exporters have been practically absent from the market in the first week of January. Nevertheless, some of them have decided to set out their position and to try and sell some steel during the holiday lull, making use of short supply and some confusion of buyers. <br> In particular, apart from traders re-selling January material, ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih and BMZ have come out with offers of billet and longs of February production (AM Kriviy Rih – output of the first half of February). <br> Naturally, the producers have pursued the upward trend; however, their strategy has not always been unanimous. In particular, square billet has been priced similarly by the producers – $630/t FOB Black Sea. ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih has reportedly managed to close a deal with buyers from the Levant countries (Jordan in particular) at those prices. There is no information on BMZ trading, but taking into account that Turkish suppliers are quoting $660/t FOB, prices from BMZ are quite workable. <br> So, it is possible that other exporters from the Black Sea region will quote at least $630-635/t FOB Black/Azov Sea, when they return to the market. <br> In the rebar segment, quotations reach $690/t FOB/$700/t DAP. However, only ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih has been putting its prices up to this level, so the initial offers from BMZ look a bit too low against this background. Traders have been trying to make use of the situation. A trading company has reportedly offered rebar of BMZ production to Levant at $680/t FOB Odessa. Taking into account all the circumstances, market participants believe the producer may withdraw the current prices to revise them upwards as soon as it succeeds in stirring up interest in February output. (Source: <a href="http://www.metalexpert-group.com/"> <span><u><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">www.metalexpert-group.com</font></u></span></a> )</span>