IREPAS 49th meeting takes place in Istanbul on October 12-13
IREPAS held its 49th meeting in Istanbul on 12th and 13th of October 2003. A record number of participants attended the meeting. In total, 143 producers and traders were present at Swissotel for the meeting. Following the evaluation of macroeconomics by country members, the traditional producers' session was held during which the 25 represented steel producers talked about the general market circumstances, and run their numbers. IREPAS Chairman Mr. Ugur Dalbeler, later announced that the producers have agreed on the following price expectations for the oncoming quarter.Billets - $260-270/mt FOB St Rebars - $300-305/mt FOB St Wire rods – mesh quality - $300-305/mt FOB St Low carbon - $310-320/mt FOB St Medium carbon - $350/mt FOB St High carbon - $360/mt FOB St PC grade - $360/mt FOB StThe main discussion topic of the 49th meeting was, of course the increasing costs, more specifically the situation of international scrap and freight markets. Mr.Peter Matthews of Black Country Metals Ltd evaluated the scrap and DRI markets, and initiated the discussion on same issue, during which some scrap suppliers have voiced their opinions about the market. The conclusion was that; the scrap prices was not expected to drop anytime soon, taking into consideration the supply/demand balance, strengthening of the Euro against US Dollar, and furthermore the shocking recent increases in freight rates. Mr. Matthews has also commented that, if any change is to be seen in scrap prices anytime soon, it would be a firming up. The traders session has underlined the difficult market circumstances in Far East, Europe and the US markets. Several participants commented about the risks brought by speculations in Chinese market and the pressure on revaluation of the Chinese RMB against the US Dollar. The session was closed with the conclusion that the rest of 2003 will be very much alike the first 9 months; i.e. uncertainty in the markets and high scrap costs. During the afternoon session, presentations on global market situation, the freight market, Far Eastern, and US markets, as well as the Black Sea scrap market were given. Capt.Levent Akson of Polaris Shipping underlined the fact that, the freight market has reached the peak of the last 40 years. He has predicted that the market will be firming up even more and after reaching its peak within a few months time, will be going down during 2004. Mr.Petr Terebov of Centramet, emphasized that the Russian mills have started building their scrap inventories in August this year, a month earlier than their usual tendency. He has confirmed that he saw no reason for the prices to go down under today's market circumstances, and predicted that the prices will not go down until March 2004. A further detailed analysis of the meeting will shortly be published on SteelOrbis pages.