Russian steelmaker Industrial Metallurgical Holding (IMH) will start production of steel at its new Tula Steel subsidiary this month, with plans to enter the billet export market in the coming months, Fastmarkets has learnt.
"Tula Steel plans to sell billet," a company source told Fastmarkets. "The volumes of offers will depend on circumstances in the raw materials and finished steel markets. However, billet will not be our priority. First of all, we will concentrate on production of rolled steel."The company started pre-commissioning activities at its new steelmaking asset in April and plans to begin to produce steel products later this month.Tula Steel may offer around 50,000 tonnes per month of billet for export sales, according to estimates by market participants. Traders listed Algeria, the Middle East, Turkey, Italy and Southeast Asia among the potential outlet markets.Competitive billet marketBut Tula Steel may face higher levels of competition in these outlets. CIS producers were expected to re-allocate some of the billet volumes they would have sent to Egypt because of that country's introduction...