CIS billet: Prices up on sales to Latin America

Billet restocking in Asia has been on hold since the end of last week, but higher deal levels for CIS billet have been achieved to other regions, pushing up the Argus daily Black Sea billet assessment by $10/t today, to $590/t fob.

A sale of 60,000t of Ukrainian billet was reported to a Latin American buyer at $650/t cfr for higher-grade material. This nets back to around $600/t fob Black Sea for base-grade material, given minimum freight rates of $37-40/t, market participants estimated.

In Asia, buying interest waned because of uncertainties over China's tax rebate policy, but it is expected to resume in the near term as the upward trend continued. A few offers were reported at $645-660/t cfr Asia from Russia's far eastern ports and the Black Sea region, with deals for Russian material heard done at up to $640/t cfr China last week.

Leading CIS mills continued to offer billet at $600/t fob Black Sea and above today, with some still considering bookings at $590/t fob. But buyers in the Middle East and north Africa continued to resist higher CIS prices as more competitive offers were available from other sources.

In Turkey, one Izmir sale was finalised at $605-610/t ex-works last week, while purchases in Iskenderun were heard lower at $590-595/t ex-works. Domestic trading was mostly quiet today amid weak local rebar sales and an unclear outlook for scrap prices. Offers for CIS material were heard from small mills and trading companies at $595-605/t cfr Izmir, while leading CIS producers are targeting up to $620-630/t cfr Turkey.

Export offers from Turkey remained at around $600/t fob today, with tradeable values estimated at $590-595/t fob.

In the Gulf Co-operation Council countries, offers from CIS sellers rose by $10/t on the week to $590/t fob, equivalent to around $630/t cfr UAE. But buyers were unlikely to accept anything over $620/t cfr today, continuing to prefer regional or local supplies over imports, as their price expectations remained static. Iranian billet was also offered to the UAE and Oman through trading companies at $580-590/t fob, with offers at the higher end of the range heard to China.

UAE local prices were unchanged this week at $610-615/t cpt. Most regional mills continue to focus on exports, especially to China, with offers around $660-670/t cfr heard from UAE sellers today.

Buyers in north Africa were heard seeking purchases at no higher than $610/t cfr. Moroccan buyers were considering bookings of Spanish billet, which was available at a similar fob level to CIS material.