In this week's Turkish merchant bar market analysis, we will take a look at the year-on-year changes seen in the January-October period of this year in Turkey's merchant bar exports and we will also have a look at the merchant bar export figures for October this year compared to October last year - based on the data lately published by the Istanbul Mineral and Metals Exporters' Association (IMMIB).
First of all, in the January-October period last year, Turkish merchant bar exports amounted to about 1,366,000 mt, whereas the figure for the same period this year is approximately 1,342,000 mt.
In January-October 2008, Turkey's most important merchant bar export markets were (figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand):
•- UK with 123,000 mt
•- Followed by Romania and Morocco with 117,000 mt each
•- UAE with 101,000 mt
•- Greece with 78,000, mt
•- Belgium with 64,000 mt
However, in January-October 2009 Turkey's most important merchant bar export markets were (rounded to the nearest thousand):
•- Iran with 233,000 mt
•- Iraq with 165,000 mt
•- Morocco with 99,000 mt
•- Saudi Arabia with 80,000 mt
•- Syria with 61,000 mt
•- Algeria with 59,000 mt.
Meanwhile, if we consider the figures for the month of October alone, we see that whereas Turkish merchant bar exports amounted to approximately 106,000 mt in October last year, they increased to around 151,000 mt in October this year.
In October 2008, Turkey's most important merchant bar export markets were (rounded to the nearest thousand):
•- Algeria with 8,000 mt
•- UAE with 7,000 mt
•- Saudi Arabia with 4,000 mt
In October 2009, Turkey's most important merchant bar export markets were (rounded to the nearest thousand):
•- Iraq with 16,000 mt
•- Iran with 15,000 mt
•- UAE with 12,000 mt
The above statistics clearly indicate that there has been a strong increase in the volume of Turkey's merchant bar exports to Iran so far in 2009. Meanwhile, though not indicated in the above figures, Turkey's merchant bar export activity to the European markets has been continuing.
Returning to the current market situation, producers in the local Turkish merchant bar market have tried to increase their prices in the past week. Merchant bar prices in Turkey have this week been at TRY 735-800/mt ($499-543/mt) ex-works depending on product and region in the domestic market. Meanwhile, merchant bar export offers from Turkey have this week generally been in the range of $520-540/mt FOB.
On the European side, the market has maintained a softening trend, with demand still not so strong. While Italian producers' merchant bar offers to the export markets have this week been at around €370-380/mt FOB, Spanish offers have been at €410-420/mt delivered to Portugal. Overall in Europe, price levels have been in the latter price range in the past week.
Despite all these facts and developments regarding the merchant bar markets in Turkey and Europe, market players think that demand is at least better compared to that for rebar.