Price trends in the global steel billet market changed direction in the week ended Friday February 22 amid limited interest from buyers in most outlets as well as a drop in imported scrap prices in Turkey.
Turkish producers wanted demand to pick up for rebar and billet, in both the domestic and export markets, before they would buy more scrap, which resulted in the lack of trading activity.As a result, scrap prices started to decline.Fastmarkets' daily index for Northern Europe-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) was calculated at $304.96 per tonne cfr Turkey on February 22, down from $324.29 on the corresponding day a week earlier.The daily index for US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) was $313.42 per tonne cfr on Friday, down from $332.75 per tonne in the same comparison.TurkeyLower import scrap price indications together with sluggish demand sent domestic, import and export billet prices downward in the Middle Eastern country.Offers of billet in the Turkish domestic market dropped to $460-470 per tonne ex-works against $480-490 per tonne ex-works a week earlier.Import billet offers from the CIS region were within the range of $470-475 per tonne cfr, down by...