Following a long absence, Turkish steel producers started to book new scrap cargoes as of last week. As a result of these new scrap bookings, the Turkish producers have reflected the new scrap costs in their long steel product prices this week.
Rebar prices which were last week transacted in the market at TRY 1,025-1,042/mt ($648-659/mt) excluding VAT have moved up slightly after Turkish integrated mill Kardemir closed its sales - which it had opened back on February 23, 2011 - at TRY 1,068/mt ($675/mt) excluding VAT, after receiving orders for 31,500 mt in total. Also, another Turkish mill Icdas announced its price level for the Marmara Region at TRY 1,076/mt ($680/mt) exlcuding VAT, and thereafter the price levels in the domestic market have moved up slightly. Towards the end of the week, the sales price levels of local traders in the market settled at TRY 1,050-1,067/mt excluding VAT ($664-675/mt)
Despite all the abovementioned improvements in terms of prices, local traders are still worried about the demand situation. However, Turkish rebar producers have seen some slight improvement in their export sales this week. From next week onwards, the expected better weather conditions nationwide will certainly help demand in the domestic market to improve to some extent and the market will gain steadier momentum.
Turkish producers appear to be comfortable about their March production and exports, as they have raised their price levels by about $10/mt during the current week. Generally, offer levels of Turkish producers have settled at $665-680/mt FOB. In particular, demand has been received from East Africa and Latin America with buyers accepting price levels that fall in the range of $665-670/mt FOB.
Some Turkish producers booked certain tonnages to Latin America this week. Peru stands out as an active market, and so Turkish producers have been able to sell a good deal of tonnage to this country this week.
In the Middle East, Iraq was this week observed to become more active after a long break. Rebar producers in Iskenderun in the south of Turkey tell SteelOrbis that they have received demand from Iraq at $670/mt ex-works. Furthermore, Iran is also expected to perform positively in April, and some new bookings have already been concluded from Turkey to Iran this week.
Towards the end of the week, some Turkish producers have started, temporarily, to try to avoid giving new offers, and it looks like they wont be making huge increases in the coming period, although this also depends on the consistency of demand. In the meantime, the market is expected to see steadier momentum, following the recent $10/mt rise in the market.