The Brazilian long steel market continued to show only weak trading activity for both domestic and foreign sales during September.

Gerdau has entered into a deal with Kinross Brasil Mineração to sell its two hydroelectric plants in Brazil’s mid-western Goiás state for 835 million Reais ($255 million), as a further step in its strategy to focus on profitable steel assets, it said late on Wednesday February 14.

Fastmarkets summarizes six hot topics that will likely dominate discussions during the 20th Asian Ferro-alloys Conference in Hong Kong on March 10-12.

Metal Bulletin proposes to re-align its Brazilian domestic steel prices to reflect market practices, making changes to the calculation of its monthly assessments.

Iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodities Exchange slumped during the morning on Monday September 1 after China published weaker official manufacturing data and rebar futures slumped to a record low.

Prices for billet have started to stabilise in some regional markets around the world following a four-week rally fuelled by rising import scrap prices in Turkey and firm demand for long steel in China.

Domestic steel prices in China are picking up strength after news of summer production cuts in the country’s steelmaking hub of Tangshan broke.

The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Thursday September 20.

Middle Eastern countries boosted their crude steel output in 2017, with producers calling for more trade protection measures to support self-sufficiency in the sector.

The downtrend in global billet prices continued over the past week as buyers looked out for bargains amid poor demand for downstream long steel products.