Editor Vera Blei looks at the main news covered by Steel First over the past week.

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.

Metal Bulletin reviews the major stories affecting the steel market over the past week.

Fastmarkets' CIS steel prices on Monday April 29 will be rolled over because of the Orthodox Easter holiday on April 29-30 and the Labor Day holiday on May 1.

Steel traders in Asia are trying to work out an arbitrage for at least 70,000 tonnes of billet to China in a highly unusual move, market sources told Metal Bulletin this week.

Fastmarkets is proposing a discontinuance of its weekly price assessments for long and flat steel products in southern China.

Billet prices in most of the world’s major markets continued to show signs of recovery this week, despite the uncertainty created by the Chinese market and low iron ore prices.

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

Fastmarkets AMM reviews recent merger-and-acquisition deals for some heavy hitters in the steel industry. Each company's ongoing purchases - big and small - are intended to expand their global reach as well as develop products and services throughout 2019.

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