Black Sea billet prices rose this week as scrap pushed higher, but demand remained broadly weak and gains were spurred largely by producers' pushing prices higher, traders said.
Traders quoted Black Sea free-on-board (fob) billet at around $565-580 a tonne from $550-565 last week. Market players added that buying picked up from last week, when a religious holiday closed business in Turkey.
"Prices have firmed up a bit. The asking price is now starting to edge up towards $580," a trader said, adding there was some resistance at this level.
Scrap prices in Turkey, one of the world's top consumers of the steel-making ingredient, were at around $400 a tonne, up from $390-400 two weeks ago, traders said.
Elsewhere, spot steel prices in the domestic Chinese market recovered this week on falling inventories after rate rise concerns led to a decline last week.
The demand outlook remained broadly poor in Europe, traders said.
Top steelmaker ArcelorMittal sees global steel demand slowing to 5-6 percent in 2011 from an estimated double-digit expansion this year due to a weak global economy, the head of the company's India and China operations said on Wednesday.