Sentiment in the CIS billet export market improved on Thursday June 7 after the resumption in scrap and rebar trading between Turkey and the United States earlier in the week.

The safeguard investigation by the European Commission (EC) into steel product imports is likely to result in quotas being applied instead of tariffs, according to the International Rebar Producers & Exporters Association (Irepas).

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

The price spread between higher and lower grades of iron ore continued to widen in 2017, mainly as a result of Chinese’s steelmakers’ growing profit margins.

Steel billet prices in most markets were stable or continued to slide in the week from Monday May 28 to Friday June 1, due to thin trading activity, falling scrap prices, and uncertainty about the United States renewing its sanctions on Iran.

China’s winter steel production cuts are expected to provide some much-needed support to Asian steel prices, according to market sources.

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.

Brazil-based steel producer Gerdau has made further moves this month in its asset divestment programme, announcing the sale of its Chilean operations to local family-owned groups Matco and Ingeniaría e Inversiones for $154 million.

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

ArcelorMittal’s Brazilian subsidiary, in a move intended to make the company more competitive domestically, signed a deal at the end of February to purchase local long steel producer Votorantim Siderurgia.