Billet prices increased last week in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Turkey, Southeast Asia and most other regions due to rising scrap costs.
Fastmarkets' daily ferrous scrap index of North Europe-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) was $297.39 per tonne cfr Turkey on Friday February 1 compared with $288.01 per tonne cfr on January 25.The increase was mostly due to tight supply in Turkey.Iron ore prices have also risen since the collapse of a dam owned by Brazil-based miner Vale raised doubts about future supply of the raw material.CIS, North AfricaPrices for material from the CIS firmed by late last week due to increased buying activity in North Africa. A 50,000-tonne cargo of Russian billet with high manganese content was sold to Algeria at $440 per tonne cfr. When normalized to a standard grade of material, the price would be equivalent to $420 per tonne fob Black Sea.Offers of CIS-origin billet in Egypt were heard at $450-460...