Posted on 22 Mar 2019
Offers of CIS billet remain at around $460/tonne fob Black Sea, but mills with remaining April casting volumes are open to negotiating small concessions, market sources tell Kallanish.
The majority of traders are sitting on the fence, largely because the stagnation in price in the past month has allowed little possibility for position taking. The majority of trades that did take place therefore were of the direct variety. But a Russian Rostov-based producer has resumed production and sold some material to traders, although these deals were low in volume and price, due to high prepayment and small volumes available.
Another, Ukrainian scrap-based producer, indicated $460/t fob Mariupol with small pre-payment which traders said was not realistic in today's quiet market. Some traders expect the market to liven up in the early April, they say.
A flurry of hearsay that a Russian-based producer has sold large volumes to Saudi Arabia and UAE appears to have been regurgitated information from 10-14 days earlier. The mill did sell at that time, but it has significantly less availability for April casting than previously expected.
Demand in Egypt remains at the level it was prior to the imposition of the billet import restriction directive, traders note, with hardly any changes in the buying patterns thus far. Sales would be possible at $470/t cfr, but there is no material available at $450/t cfr, unless it is direct from the mills. An example is one Ukrainian mill, which has a strong relationship with the country's re-rollers and "... can afford to have customs uncleared stock in Marietta," according to one trader.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian billet was booked in Algeria at $475/t cfr and another lot at $467/t cfr, according to sources, but the latter sale could not be confirmed by publication deadline.
