Prices in the major global billet markets continued to show positive dynamics in the week ended Friday October 25, after CIS producers increased offers by $5-10 per tonne week on week due to reduced availability of the material.
Among other supportive factors were increased demand from Turkish customers as well as higher scrap offers from the United States."Supplies in the CIS region fell sharply and this triggered billet demand and raised the prices in all markets," said a Turkish mill source.CIS, Turkey, EgyptCIS billet producers continued to gradually increase their export offer prices last week amid reduced availability of the material in the market.Offers from Ukraine were limited as most mills have idled parts of their facilities because of this year's unfavorable pricing environment.Ukrainian billet was only available from Arcelor Mittal Kryvyi Rih (AMKR), which raised its offer price to $375 per tonne fob Black Sea by the end of last week against $370 per tonne fob on Wednesday October 23 and $365 per tonne fob on Monday October 21, sources said.In Russia, billet offers were limited as some producers have already filled their order books for November and were in no hurry to...