Although offer prices for future orders of Turkish rebar to the US have remained relatively stagnant this week, sources tell SteelOrbis that the prevalence of position availability at the ports will drag prices down “whether traders want to or not.” Demand for future arrivals is low, although any bookings that are occurring are reportedly taking place near the bottom of the wide offer range of $20.00-$22.00 cwt. ($400-$440/nt or $441-$485/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports. The range is expected to narrow from the top end in the coming weeks due to the continuous influx of positions.
In the first five days of August, the US has already recorded 39,571 mt of rebar import permits, 25,600 mt of which from Turkey alone. Sticking to small tonnage purchases, sources say customers are using positions as leverage in negotiations with US domestic mills. The possibility of this situation triggering an official domestic price decrease is unlikely, but in the meantime import positions are putting substantial pressure on the domestic market.