GLOBAL BILLET WRAP: Offers rise amid higher scrap costs but buyers remain wary

Most of the global markets for steel billet showed low activity in the week ended Friday February 14, but offer prices from the main producing regions still increased, amid higher costs for scrap raw material and weak demand for semi-finished steel products.

Prices from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Turkey rose, but buying interest remained subdued, with customers preferring to take a cautious stance.
Scrap prices continued to recover, with Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), Northern Europe origin, cfr Turkey, at $267.05 per tonne on February 14, up by $14.82 per tonne from $252.23 per tonne on February 7.
CIS
The recovery in scrap prices fueled positive sentiment in the CIS export billet market, but many customers preferred to adopt a wait-and-see approach and did not place any bids.

CIS offers rose by $5 per tonne late in the week, compared with previous prices, to $395-400...

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