Russia’s billet exports increased by 18pc to 10.21mn mt in January-July compared to 8.35mn mt in the same seven months last year, the country’s Customs reported.
Billet exports in July more than tripled to 3mn mt from 665,000mt in the same prior-year month and improved by 169pc from 1.12mn mt in June.
Mexico replaced Turkey as the top destination for Russian billet in July with the North American country importing 866,861mt of the product, up 19-fold from 4,428mt in July 2020. Belgium took second place with billet imports from Russia increasing 179 times to 578,814mt against 323mt in the same timeframe, while Turkey’s imports increased 10-fold over the annual period to 466,788mt from 29,284mt.
China and Taiwan were the largest importers of Russian billet in July last year. This year, however, exports to China fell by 39pc to 111,971mt in July from 184,085mt in the prior year, while Taiwan’s imports grew 24pc to 356,279mt against 287,653mt in the same timeframe.