Last week slight increases were observed in Turkish rebar export offers, while uncertainty regarding the €/$ exchange rate predominated on the European side.
In the Turkish domestic market, rebar prices last week stood at TRY 830-860/mt ex-works/ex-warehouse, including VAT, unchanged as compared to the previous week. While Ramadan has continued to affect the market in question, the expectation that demand will accelerate with the conclusion of Ramadan is gaining strength with each passing day. On the export side, some slight increase has been observed in Turkish export offers during the past week, with price levels of $480/mt FOB starting to rise to the range of $490-500/mt FOB. The increased number of scrap purchases concluded by Turkish mills suggests the possibility of upward movement in finished steel prices in the coming days.
On the other hand, in the Middle Eastern market demand is trending at medium levels as the end of Ramadan draws nearer; however, it is still uncertain in which direction the market will move with the conclusion of Ramadan. In the UAE domestic market rebar prices have been in the range of AED 1,950-2,000/mt delivered to site, while in the local Jordanian market rebar prices have been around $570-580/mt ex-works, excluding eight percent VAT. Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, prices last week remained the same. In general, the Middle Eastern market has experienced a fairly quiet week.
Moving to southern Europe, the fluctuations of the €/$ exchange rate have predominated in the market. The dollar's loss of strength against the euro has especially affected the offers given from southern Europe to the Algerian market. Meanwhile, in the southern European domestic markets, rebar prices have maintained their strength with the support of raw material prices. However, demand in these markets has been experiencing difficulties in reaching the anticipated levels.