Friday, August 1, saw the start of the holiday season in most of the southern Europe countries. Indeed, the merchant bar market in this region had also been waiting a long time for the holiday break. The most noteworthy development affecting this market in July was the softening seen in semi-finished and raw material prices across Europe.
The downward trend observed in the past few weeks in Turkey's domestic and export offer prices continued during last week, i.e. during the last week of July. In spite of this downward trend, no improvement on the demand side has been observed. The producers in this country expect that the prices will straighten up in the upcoming weeks.
In the Turkish domestic merchant bar market, the most important feature last week was the leveling of the price differences between the various regions. In the week in question, merchant bars were offered at the range of TRY 1,420-1,500/mt ($1,232-1,301/mt) ex-works, excluding VAT. It was heard that traders with previously taken positions were offering at lower levels compared to the above price range.
Last week, Turkish merchant bar export offers continued their downtrend. However, the decline in question did not cause any improvement in demand. Turkish producers offered angles for export at $1,250-1,270/mt FOB on actual weight basis for August/September shipments. In addition, flat bars were offered at $1,260-1,280/mt FOB, 80-100-120 mm IPE were offered at $1,350-1,370/mt FOB and IPN-UPN were offered at $1,260-1,280/mt FOB and 80-100-120 mm IPE AA were offered at $1,360-1,380/mt FOB - all on actual weight basis and also for August/September shipments.
Merchant bars in the Romanian domestic market have been offered at the same price levels for a long time now. Still without change, merchant bars were last week offered at €820-840/mt ($1,277-1,308/mt) ex-works, excluding VAT. Frequent reports state that domestic producers in this country want to increase their prices in the upcoming weeks. If the increase in question happens, it is heard that end-users and traders in Romania may turn to the import market instead.
No considerable change was observed in merchant bar prices in the UK last week. Merchant bar offers in this market were at ₤720-740/mt mt ($1,419-1,459/mt) ex-works, excluding VAT.
In the Greek domestic market last week, the price levels of merchant bars of 140 mm and below sizes were at €860-880/mt ($1,339-1,370/mt) delivered to customer, excluding VAT.