Pessimism continued to dominate the CIS export market for steel billet in the first week of August amid the weakening of the finished long steel markets both in the CIS and in customers' domestic territories.
Another reason for the dullness of sentiment was the recent sharp drop in global iron ore prices, following the lack of demand from China, which is the largest global iron ore importer. This pushed many market participants into adopting a wait-and-see position.Given these market conditions, offer prices for CIS billet started to soften. Traders were offering September-rolling material...