The following price movements were recorded in London Metal Exchange (LME) steel billet futures contract trading as of the end of last week.
As of January 7 ($/mt) |
As of January 14 ($/mt) |
Weekly change (%) |
||||
Bid |
Ask |
Bid |
Ask |
Bid |
Ask |
|
Official, cash: |
568.00 |
570.00 |
550.00 |
551.00 |
-3.17 |
-3.33 |
Official, three months: |
598.00 |
599.00 |
575.00 |
585.00 |
-3.85 |
-2.33 |
Official, 15 months: |
670.00 |
680.00 |
645.00 |
655.00 |
-3.73 |
-3.68 |
Evaluation closing, cash: |
568.00 |
550.00 |
550.00 |
551.00 |
-3.17 |
0.18 |
Evaluation closing, 3 months: |
598.00 |
575.00 |
575.00 |
585.00 |
-3.85 |
1.74 |
Stock volumes did not indicate any change last week and remained at 56,485 mt as of January 14.
According to the DeutscheBank-Stemcore report , the offer prices of Turkish billet were down $15/mt last week to $665/mt FOB Turkey, while CIS and Russian mills' new billet offer price was $640/mt FOB Black Sea with lead times extended into March.
The report indicated that the LME three-month billet contract opened at $600/mt and traded down to $575/mt by the end of the week. According to the report, the market is now expected to be supported in the above $580-600/mt range. The cash contract traded between $568/mt and $575/mt last week.
The Deutsche Bank Price Outlook for billet prices for the LME is as follows as of January 17, 2011.
| Comments | Latest | Last week average | Last month average | Outlook | |||
| LME billet, cash | $555/mt | $565/mt (2%) | $525/mt (-5%) | Firm: prices expected to rise | |||
| LME billet, three months | $582/mt | $592/mt (2%) | $543/mt (-5%) | Firm: prices well supported above $580/mt | |||