Issue 01, 2024 - This week's editorial: Billets market starts 2024 with recovering expectations

Russian billet suppliers continued observing a holiday break during the first week of January, resulting in limited activity. The new year has nevertheless started strong in terms of prices and further hikes are expected in the coming days.

Billet from Russia’s southern region was offered to Turkey at $550/tonne cfr Turkish Black Sea ports for January shipment, up by $10-15/t compared to indications a week earlier.The hike is attributed to the recent imported scrap price increase in Turkey. “The Turks will most probably wait until the second week of January [before purchasing billet],” a supply-side source says, adding he expects “scrap and all [other material prices] will lift up then”.

A trading source says the Russian billet price of $510/t fob Black Sea, unchanged from the previous week, was still available. Turkish re-rollers deem prices above $520-530/t cfr to be unfeasible.

As a result, Russian billet is assessed at $495-510/t fob Black Sea, unchanged from a week earlier.

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