After a couple weeks of attempts at pushing US import rebar prices higher, resistance in the market has led to a stagnant price trend this week. Traders tell SteelOrbis that a few higher prices quoted from Turkish mills last week were outliers that “never had a chance.” Since then, quotes have settled back down, but the trend hasn’t become apparent in offers to US customers quite yet because traders were reluctant to increase them in the last couple weeks—customers reportedly believed the offers were “inflated” based on raw material costs.
As such, imported rebar in the US domestic market from Turkey is still being sold in the range of $23.00-$24.00 cwt. ($460-$480/nt or $507-$529/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports—for now. Sources tell SteelOrbis that there could be downticks in the range by next week, but a few more weeks of stagnant offers is also possible due to low activity around the holidays. By early January, however, sources expect to see decreases in import rebar offers.