Traders' import rebar offering prices for US customers have not changed in the past week; however, asking prices from foreign mills continue to rise.
Import rebar offers for US customers are still in the range of $37.50 cwt. to $38.50 cwt. ($827 /mt to $849 /mt or $750 /nt to $770 /nt) FOB, loaded truck, in US Gulf ports, but replacement costs are significantly above this level.
Traders still have a lot of unsold positions and are waiting for the domestic pricing level to rise high enough so that customers will accept higher import prices. For now, they will hold onto their inventories, patiently waiting for Nucor and the rest of the domestic mills to raise their numbers. Since new import offers from Turkish mills are far and above the current accepted range in the US, the pricing trend for import rebar remains strongly up.
Preliminary census data from the US Import Administration show that in January 2008, the US' rebar imports totaled 115,313 mt, compared to 152,345 mt in January 2007. The US' top import rebar sources in January 2008 were primarily Turkey, at 58,211 mt, and Mexico, at 44,737 mt. Other smaller sources included the Dominican Republic, at 5,594 mt; Japan, at 5,353 mt; and Canada, at 1,197 mt.
On the domestic side, there has not been much news in the past week. Market conditions for rebar remain tight, and import prices are high, which could allow domestic mills to raise prices anyway.
Currently, domestic rebar prices for March shipments remain at a range of $36.15 cwt. to $36.65 cwt. ($797 /mt to $808/mt or $723 /nt to $733 /nt) FOB mill.