GLOBAL BILLET WRAP: Prices remain strong in most regions despite limited trading

Prices for steel billet increased in many buying regions and remained steady in most other regions due to continued strength in ferrous scrap prices, although billet buying activity started to diminish last week ahead of year-end holidays and few trades were made.

Global scrap prices continued to climb despite limited volumes being traded. Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), Northern Europe origin, cfr Turkey, ended the week at $296.01 per tonne on December 20, up from $294.63 per tonne on December 16.
CIS, Egypt
Prices for billet in the Commonwealth of Independent States were steady ahead of the holiday period.
Offers remained around $420 per tonne fob Black Sea, with some mills starting to make February-output material available.
But most customers had already purchased enough material and were planning to buy February production volumes next month.

Recent bookings of CIS-origin billet were, however, done in mid-December...

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