Steel billet prices in most markets around the world continued on an upward trend in the week ended Friday November 15 amid a recovery in scrap prices in the Turkish import market as well as increasing demand for billet in China.
Market participants consider Turkey's scrap import prices to be a major indicator of scrap price trends because the country is the world's largest importer of the steelmaking raw material.Fastmarkets' assessment of the price for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), US origin, cfr Turkey, was $260.03 per tonne on November 15, up by more than $30 per tonne since hitting a year-to-date low of $225.88 on October 1."The long steel markets were very weak because of limited demand, but the billet markets are seeing some recovery because of the improving prices in Asia," a trading source said.CIS, Egypt, TurkeyCIS suppliers raised their billet offers because of the increase in scrap prices and managed to secure several deals during the week.Fastmarkets' daily steel billet index, export, fob Black Sea, CIS, was $380 per tonne on November 15, up by $7 per tonne from November 11.Russia's Abinsk Electric Steel Mill sold a...