Prices on the procurement markets of the Middle East and Southeast Asia traditionally fluctuate in unison, but now the movement takes different. This is due to different processes that occur in these regions with lengthy hire and scrap metal.
In the middle East market in the second week of March, the cost of semi-finished products have been relatively stable. Manufacturers of these products from the CIS countries, with the exception of the Belarusian metallurgical plant, reduce their quotes, offered it for export at $530-535 / t FOB, although some deals with Turkish buyers was and for conditions close to the $525 per MT FOB. The demand for billet in the region was moderate, major deliveries were carried out in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
Turkish companies have recently been trying to increase the value of long products to compensate for the increased cost of scrap metal has risen in price. American, European and Russian suppliers of raw materials refuse to make concessions due to limited volume of supply, as a result, the metallurgists in need of replenishment, it is necessary to accept higher prices. Accordingly, more expensive billet and long products, although in that and in other case, producers have to overcome the resistance of consumers.
In mid-March the Turkish company was trying to bring the cost of billet in the domestic market to more than $560 per ton EXW (excluding VAT) and the export – to $555-560 / t FOB. In reality, however, the transaction generally was at $550-555 / t EXW and $545-555 / t FOB respectively. As a result, the semi-finished production of the CIS were rarely purchased by the Turkish distributors of more than $545-550 per ton CFR. However, as the traders, demand for billet in Turkey and the middle East are now higher than for rebar.
Based on this factor, the Russian and Ukrainian companies plan to increase quotes by the April contracts. Ukrainian manufacturers offer semi-finished products for next month at $535-540 / t FOB, while Russian production could reach $545 per ton FOB. Over the past few weeks steelmakers from CIS have sold quite a large amount of billets in South-East Asia and so you can feel confident in relationships with middle Eastern clients.
At the same time, Asia and the workpiece in the second week of March went down. The local market of semi-finished products were "resold", the demand for them has decreased and the number of suppliers, on the contrary, increased. In early March of the workpiece even offered a Chinese company exporting under the guise of the rod, to avoid paying 25% duty on export of semi-finished products. Japanese steelmakers, without waiting for the recovery of the domestic market of long products in March, was forced to resume the export of workpieces at very reasonable prices – below $580 / t CFR Philippines. Also present on the market of traditional suppliers from Korea and Vietnam.
In the last week the cost of blanks in the region decreased to $565-575 per MT CFR, while companies offering more expensive products were out of the market. At the same time, the depreciation of semi-finished products coincided with the decline in prices for long products and fittings. Quotes on Chinese wire rod from the beginning of March decreased by $25-35 per ton, and fittings in Asia is stagnating or sliding down despite the approaching dry season. At the same time, scrap in the far East market in recent years has fallen from-for falling of quotations at the Japanese material at $15-25 per ton for a fortnight.
And if in the middle East the suppliers of blanks can count on some improvement in the second half of March, then in South-East Asia recovery likely to be delayed.
 
Victor Tarnavsky
Rusmet.ru