Speaking at the SteelOrbis 2017 Fall Conference & 77th IREPAS Meeting held in Athens on September 24-26, Michael Setterdahl from Liberty House Group, the chairman of the traders committee, said that the main concern of the traders is the ongoing Section 232 investigation in the US, though adding that US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has recently announced that the results of the investigation have been delayed until after the planned tax reform.
Commenting on the recent antidumping duties on Turkish rebar, Mr. Setterdahl said that most traders believe that nothing can really replace Turkish suppliers, since they are one of only two markets that can ship 50,000 mt of rebar within two months, the other being China.
The traders committee chairman stressed that there is a rebar surplus of one million mt in the EU market and this is because of reduced rebar imports from Algeria which used to import 2 million mt of rebar per year. Regarding the increased demand in the Chinese domestic market, he said that this gave Turkish suppliers the opportunity to ship to Southeast Asia.
Mr. Setterdahl also pointed out that the market should be vigilant about the absolute numbers regarding the decreases in China’s imports or exports, rather than about the percentages. He also said that traders are also concerned about China reentering the billet market, adding that the question is when China will resume billet exports, not if it will.