Russia’s billet exports drop by over 8% to 3.4 mn t in Q1 CY ’21

Russia’s exports of steel billets were recorded at over 3.4 mn t in Jan-Mar ’21, as per data available with SteelMint. Exports fell 8.7% from over 3.7 mn t in Q1 FY ’20. Taiwan remained the largest buyer of Russian billets with volumes going past 750,000 t during the period, although imports dropped 16.5% on year. Belgium and Mexico were the other leading importers with volumes roughly around 555,000 t each. Strikingly, Turkey’s billet imports rose by 115% to over 350,000 t during the period.