After a brief spate of neutral movement, import offer prices for Turkish rebar to the US slipped again this week, continuing the downtrend from before. Traders tell SteelOrbis that the repercussions of Turkish mills’ price increase gamble a few months ago are still being felt—they raised prices too high and then when they had to drop them enough to garner orders, they had to lower domestic prices as well to avoid the ire of the US DOC. Traders reportedly believe prices could go a bit lower still, but for this week at least offer prices are reflecting a $0.50 cwt. ($10/nt or $11/mt) decline, down to the range of $22.00-$23.00 cwt. ($440-$460/nt or $494-$517/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports.
As for the US domestic rebar market, rumors of an imminent price increase have taken a sharp turn—with scrap predicted to move sideways instead of up again, and import prices continuing to decline, sources tell SteelOrbis that mills are backing off on the idea of an increase. As such, spot prices are still in the range of $31.50-$32.50 cwt. ($630-$650/nt or $694-$717/mt) ex-mill this week.