Philippines’ billet imports increased by 2pc to 1.49mn mt in the first seven months of 2021, when compared to 1.47mn mt during the same period last year, according to the country’s Customs data.
Imports of the material nearly doubled this July to 287,178mt from 144,071mt in the same month of 2020 and fell 23pc from 232,723mt in June 2021.
Vietnam was the largest exporter of billet to the country, recording 111,676mt of shipments in July, up by 878pc from 11,420mt in June. India was the second-largest at 59,113mt from 40,349mt within the same period.
Bahrain emerged as a new exporter in July, recording a total volume of 30,227mt.