Steel billet prices in most of the world's major markets maintained their upward momentum during the week ended Friday February 15 while iron ore and scrap costs continued to go up.
The rise in scrap prices followed on from increasing raw materials prices after the fatal accident at an iron ore tailings dam at Vale's Feij??o mine near the city of Brumadinho, in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil.The accident will result in a production loss of 40 million tonnes per year of iron ore, Vale has said. This has already led to increased costs for all steelmaking raw materials.Besides that, the availability of March-rolling billet from the CIS region was reduced due to successful sales in earlier weeks.What is more, market sources said that some Russian producers were canceling orders made earlier in February by customers in North Africa and Asia, due to the sharp price increase, and were now offering higher prices to the market.CIS, EgyptOffers of CIS-origin billet increased to $470-475 per tonne fob Black Sea last week against $450-460 per tonne fob the week before.Although the...