Turkish longs exporters are squeezed between high production costs and the pressure from international buyers for additional discounts. The general sentiment is still negative due to the aggressive pricing policy of North African suppliers and the rather competitive offers coming from Asia. The local Turkish longs market does not look promising either as an alternative to compensate for the slow export trade. As a result, negotiations are taking place, but they do not seem to be resulting in actual sales so far. Moreover, most international buyers are waiting for the SteelOrbis 2023 Fall Conference & 89th IREPAS Meeting on September 17-19 in Istanbul for possible longs product sales or for at least some clarification of the market trend.
Ex-Turkey official rebar offers are available at $570-580/mt FOB for late September-October shipments, while counterbid price levels seem to be at around $550-560/mt FOB, which is difficult to achieve under the current market conditions. Some mills believe import scrap prices may gain momentum in the short term. They are refraining from giving discounts in order to be on the safe side if import scrap prices rise in the short term.
In the local rebar market, Kardemir succeeded in selling around 35,000 mt of rebar at $582/mt ex-works earlier today. This rebar price level is close to the lower end of the official rebar price range in Turkey at $580-590/mt ex-works, versus $570-595/mt ex-works a week ago. In addition, sources report small tonnages of rebar were also traded in the Izmir region at TRY 18,800/mt ($582/mt) ex-works earlier today. This afternoon, an Iskenderun-based mill has opened its rebar sales at TRY 19,200/mt ($595/mt) ex-works according to $1 = TRY 26.90 rate, which is up TRY 200/mt ($5/mt) from the previous day.
In the wire rod segment, ex-Turkey official wire rod offers have remained unchanged at $590/mt FOB for late September-October shipments. In the Turkish domestic market, the general wire rod price range has settled at $580-615/mt ex-works, falling by $10/mt on the lower end. However, wire rod prices are expected to increase in line with the positive mood in the import scrap segment.