Several deals were heard secured early last week, after which buying activity in the CIS export billet market faded with downward sentiment starting to spread while prices fell in China.
"The market got frozen recently [and] people are watching Chinese prices falling significantly," an international trading source told Metal Bulletin.Metal Bulletin's export CIS Billet Index remained largely unchanged week-on-week at $552 per tonne fob Black Sea on Monday March 19.CIS-origin billet was available to various destinations at prices mainly within the range of $550-555 per tonne fob Black Sea.Several cargoes of Ukraine-origin billet totaling 50,000 tonnes were reported sold to Egypt and Algeria at $570 per tonne cfr. This would be equivalent to $545-550...