Most of the world's markets for steel billet have been affected by the negative sentiment generated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the strong decreases in prices for ferrous scrap. Buyers in China, however, continued to import material.
Import prices of ferrous scrap in Turkey continued to fall last week.
Fastmarkets' daily index for
steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey, was $224.55 per tonne on March 27, down by $17.08 per tonne since March 20.
The reason was a sharp decline in steel demand because of the measures being taken worldwide to control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trading was close to non-existent in most billet markets, with several countries taking stronger measures to control the spread of the virus.
CIS
The price of billet produced in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) fell again amid weak demand and declining scrap prices in Turkey, despite new sales to China.
In addition, the majority of the traditional outlets for CIS billet were inactive over the week amid lockdowns in various parts of the world, and protective measures imposed...