After a period of relative calm in February, all the beat-the-clock bookings for import rebar in the US from Turkey have hit ports in March--and traders expect more this month as well. According to US import license data, 142,988 mt of Turkish rebar arrived in March, following a total of 43,503 mt in February (preliminary census data) and 125,365 mt in January (census data). Although traders tell SteelOrbis that much of the tonnage consists of customer-direct orders, there are enough position buys available to be a potentially influencing factor on the uptrend expected in the US domestic market this month.
Although scrap prices in the US haven’t settled yet, an increase is all but guaranteed, which many sources think will undoubtedly result in rebar mill increase announcements in the US. But if mills try to add another $1.00 cwt. ($20/mt or $22/nt) or so to the existing spot range of $33.50-$34.50 cwt. ($670-$690/nt or $739-$760/mt) ex-mill, it would widen the already-wide margin between not only Turkish positions at the port, but future offers of $29.50-$30.50 cwt. ($590-$610/nt or $650-$672/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports as well. Sources are divided as to whether mills will take this into consideration when setting their price policies, but customers almost certainly will when negotiating.