In this week's Turkish merchant bar market analysis, we will take a look at the Turkish export market data for merchant bars lately published by the Istanbul Mineral and Metals Exporters' Association (IMMIB). When comparing the first six months of 2009 with the same period of last year, a striking change is observed to have taken place in the destination countries of Turkey's merchant bar exports.
According to the IMMIB data, Turkey exported approximately 887,000 mt of merchant bars in January-June 2008, whereas it exported 685,000 mt of this product in the same period this year.
In January-June 2008, Turkey's most important merchant bar export markets were (figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand):
Romania, 95,000 mt
UK, 83,000 mt
UAE, 75,000
Greece, 56,000 mt
Morocco, 54,000 mt
Belgium, 40,000 mt.
However, in January-June 2009 Turkey's main merchant bar export markets were as follows (figures have again been rounded off):
Iraq, 103,000 mt
Morocco, 53,000
Syria, 48,000 mt
Algeria, 46,000 mt
Saudi Arabia, 45,000 mt.
Looking at the month of June alone, the figures are as follows:
In June 2008, Turkey exported 137,000 mt of merchant bars: the main markets were Peru with 13,000 mt, Greece with 12,000 mt, Spain with 10,000 mt, Germany and Belgium with 9,000 mt each and Iraq with 7,000 mt.
In June 2009, Turkey exported 127,000 mt of merchant bars: the main markets were Morocco with 17,000 mt, Iraq with 15,000 mt, Algeria with 11,000 mt and Canada with 7,000 mt.
Looking at the above data, a remarkable transformation is seen in Turkey's merchant bar export markets in January-June 2009 compared to the same period of 2008. While Turkey exported merchant bars mostly to Europe in the first half of last year, the country exported the material in question mostly to the Middle East and North Africa in the same period of this year.
Meanwhile, a softening has been observed in the past week in Turkey's domestic and export merchant bar markets, mainly on the back of low demand. Additionally, the downtrend in import billet prices can be considered as another reason for the softening in Turkish merchant bar export offers in particular.
Meanwhile, in Europe merchant bar producers have been unable to achieve their desired price hikes due to low demand. With most European producers starting their holidays within the next month, it is expected that European producers will likely determine their new price policies and strategies after the holidays.