Steel billet prices in the global markets were up in all regions except Asia last week, supported by increasing raw material costs, particularly scrap.
Low-priced Japanese billet transactions and competitive offers for Chinese billet resulted in a $10-per-tonne decline in the Southeast Asian market.
Southeast Asia, China
Several cargoes of Japanese billet were booked in the Philippines last week within the range of $410-415 per tonne cfr. One transaction included 6 meter-long billet, which did not meet the specifications listed in Fastmarkets' methodology and was excluded from the price assessment.
The increased presence of Japanese billet in Southeast Asia is
likely to be temporary, industry sources in Southeast Asia said, referring to the downturn in Japanese ferrous scrap prices in the first half of this month as well as the weakening of the yen against the US dollar.
Mills in the country are likely to wait for the results of March's scrap auction by Kanto Tetsugen, a cooperative of scrap dealers in the Tokyo region, before issuing any new billet offers, a Japanese trader...