Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the second and third largest steel consuming countries in the Middle East, have suffered mostly indirectly from the impact of Section 232, executives said during a panel at the Middle East Iron & Steel Conference in Dubai on December 10-12.

China’s ferrous scrap market plummeted over the past three weeks due to destocking pressure on sellers coupled with low procurement rates among mills, which sent prices to their lowest in close to two years.

The global billet market showed signs of reaching a turning point last week, as prices in most regions took a downward turn following developments in the Turkish scrap market.

Brazilian long steel imports were 52.6% higher in September compared with the corresponding month last year.

Global billet prices moved in different directions during the week ended Friday May 4, with limited supply and improved demand pushing prices up for Southeast Asia’s imports, China’s domestic market and Turkey’s exports.

There are reasons to believe the worst is over for a domestic steel market rattled by the Covid-19 pandemic, Nucor Corp president and chief executive officer Leon Topalian told attendees of Fastmarkets’ Steel Success Strategies Online conference on Monday October 26.

The offtake agreement that sees Glencore market the vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) produced by Largo Resources in Brazil will not be renewed when it expires on April 30, 2020, the latter said late on Tuesday August 20.

State-owned Saudi Arabian steel producer Hadeed Sabic plans to investment in a new product, although the details have yet to be announced, company president Mohammed Al-Zahrani said on Tuesday December 11.

Export prices for long steel products in Brazil were all stable during May, due to thin trading activity, sources told Metal Bulletin.

Sabic Hadeed expects local steel consumption to increase gradually over the next 10 years thanks to stronger demand from the private sector and not only via government spending or the oil sector, the state-owned Saudi Arabian steel producer said at Fastmarkets’ Middle East Iron and Steel conference in Dubai last week.