Proposal to reduce frequency of steel billet index export, fob Black Sea, CIS

The amendment would decrease publishing frequency to twice per week from daily, to reflect lower market liquidity following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and resulting in Western sanctions against Russia that led to lower export sales volumes from the country. This is also while the effect of the war has resulted in lower sales from Ukraine.

The new proposed specifications for the index will be as follows:

MB-STE-0558 Steel billet index export, fob Black Sea, CIS, $/tonne
Quality: Base 3SP (grades Q275 Q235, 5SP and equivalent normalized). Base sectional dimension 130x130mm and 150x150mm, 6-12 m length (100x100mm, 125x125mm, 120x120mm normalized)
Quantity: Min 2,500 tonnes
Location: fob Novorossiysk
Timing: Up to 6 weeks
Unit: USD/tonne
Payment terms:15-30% advance payment possible, rest or 100% against shipping documents or upon delivery
Publication: Twice weekly. Tuesday and Friday, 4pm London time

The price is part of the Fastmarkets steel package.

The consultation period for these proposed changes starts from Thursday February 6 and will end on Thursday March 6, with an update published on that day. The amendment will then take place, subject to market feedback, on Tuesday March 11.

To provide feedback on this price, or if you would like to provide price information by becoming a data submitter to this price, please contact Vlada Novokreshchenova by email at pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading “FAO: Vlada Novokreshchenova, re: steel billet index export, fob Black Sea, CIS.”

Please indicate if comments are confidential. Fastmarkets will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.

To see all Fastmarkets pricing methodology and specification documents, go to https://www.fastmarkets.com/methodology.