Market sources report that Turkey's rebar export offers have followed a sideways trend during the current week at $575-585/mt FOB. In line with increases in import scrap prices in Turkey, which have now settled in the range of $385-386/mt CFR, Turkish steelmakers had revised their export offers in the previous two weeks by $10/mt, with prices moving on a stable trend this week.
In the past week, a total of about 40,000 mt of rebar has been sold from Turkey to the UAE in the price range of $582-585/mt CFR, while demand in the UAE market for Turkish rebar is still on the strong side. However, any offers above this range would be too high for buyers in the UAE. On the other hand, buyers in Middle East are generally hesitating to book new import materials at the moment as the summer holiday mood still dominates the market, while Turkish rebar faces competition from aggressive Chinese rebar offers in this region. Nevertheless, buyers in the Middle East are reluctant to conclude deals for Chinese rebar as they find these offers to be not so reliable and as the lead times involved are long. Thus, new bookings by Middle Eastern buyers have been postponed to September, resulting in weaker demand for Turkish materials in the global market this week.
However, ex-Turkey rebar transactions are expected to be concluded in the next two weeks in Israel and Yemen, though buyers in these countries are also evaluating Chinese offers.