The price increases which have been evident since early March in the Turkish domestic wire rod market are seen to have slowed down this week. Holding certain levels of inventory coming towards the end of March and with price increases taking longer than expected, buyers began to worry and purchased some quantities of wire rod. This week, however, a quiet mood has prevailed in the market. The decline of the $/TRY exchange rate below 1.52 after a long time was the decisive factor in prices levels in the local Turkish market during the current week.
In the international markets, with producers having begun to announce their new prices for April production as of this week, price levels are expected to gain their final shape in the coming week. In the local Egyptian market, the strong increases seen today in rebar prices are also expected to be reflected in wire rod prices. Last week, due to the increased export offers from Turkey, Egyptian market players had maintained a wait-and-see stance. In the coming week, Egyptian buyers are expected to make their final decisions about imports.
This week, wire rod offers to the Dubai market have continued to be seen. Despite the weak momentum on the demand side in the local Dubai market, it is still too early to say that this is having a strong impact. Last week, the conclusion was heard of a booking of 10,000 mt of mesh quality wire rod at the level of $690-700/mt CFR from Turkey to Dubai for April shipment. This week, mesh quality wire rod offers in the local Dubai market are standing at the levels of $700-710/mt ex-works and some purchases are heard to have been concluded at these price levels.
In the local Italian market, this week the expected price increases became a reality. In the local Italian market, wire rod prices are expected to increase to levels of €540-550/mt delivered to customer, in reflection of the increases seen in rebar prices. There is no prediction for these price levels' acceptability for now, but prices are expected to become clearer in the coming week.
This week, in the US market, Chinese offers have been heard which are comparatively lower than Turkish export offers. Over the coming week we will watch to see whether the Turkish mills are going to revise their offers to the US in line with the Chinese offers.