Posco has announced that it would pay 241.42 billion Won ($218.58 million) for all the shares of Posco SS-Vina, a 1-million-tpy integrated special long steel plant that is close to commissioning in Vietnam.

Base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange are mainly firmer this morning, Wednesday September 27, with gains averaging 0.6%. Volume has been average with 6,713 lots traded as of 06:48 BST.

China’s major mills lowered their crude steel output rates further in late October even as finished steel inventories continued to decrease.

Global billet prices have shown mixed dynamics over the past week, as an uptick in Turkish scrap prices dragged up CIS and Turkish billet prices, while Southeast Asian and UAE billet prices were down due to poor sentiment.

The fruits of Marius Kloppers’ crusade for shorter-term prices for iron ore were clear in BHP Billiton’s first-half results published last week. The group’s underlying profits were up 59.7% year-on-year at $17.3 billion for the second half of 2010, but iron ore ebit was up 178%. Iron ore’s share of earnings rose from below one quarter to nearly 40% of earnings, as BHP shifted nearly all sales to more lucrative index-linked or spot prices.

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

The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Friday January 26.

The Brazilian long steel market was largely stable in January, but prices are now expected rise and a government decision on whether to allow ArcelorMittal Brasil to take control of Votorantim Siderurgia's long steel assets is imminent.

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange are for the most part stronger this morning, Monday October 16. Nickel prices are little changed, while the rest are up by an average of 0.9% – led by a 1.9% gain in copper prices to $7,025 per tonne.

Turkey’s steel mills continued their deep-sea purchases for June this week with prices showing a slight decrease, while Taiwanese import and US export prices were holding stable.