Prices in Southeast Asia's steel billet market declined slightly during the week to Friday October 25 despite a recovery in ferrous scrap prices amid an ample supply of Indian and Japanese billets.
Scrap prices in the bellwether Turkish market, the world's largest import of steel scrap, have recovered since hitting a year to date trough of $218.98 per tonne on October 1.During the week to Friday, two shipments involving less than 10,000 tonnes of billets each from Japan and India were booked at $395-400 per tonne cfr Manila. The transactions could not be confirmed but fell within Fastmarkets assessed price range."Lower domestic scrap prices and a weaker Japanese yen had made the export market attractive for Japanese steelmakers," a trader in East Asia said.The Japanese currency was...