The Turkish merchant bar market has in the past week been affected by the continuous softening of local and import billet prices. While Turkish merchant bar producers' offers last week continued to soften in both the local and export markets, demand remained at low levels. With mentioned prices varying in the local market depending on regions and payment terms, the most frequently seen price levels were TRY 730-810/mt (426-472$/mt) excluding VAT. Offered price levels in the export market were at $480-500/mt FOB in the early days of last week, while the price level of $440/mt FOB was mentioned towards the end of the week. Whereas demand from Europe was at very low levels, Africa and Iraq continued to shine in terms of merchant bar demand during the week in question.
Given the hard times experienced by the construction sector, merchant bar demand is currently at low levels almost throughout Europe. The rumors in recent weeks of a softening in Spain almost became a reality towards the end of last week. Offers to Portugal were at €405-430/mt ($512-544/mt) delivered to customer. Also in Italy, merchant bar prices declined to levels of €400-420/mt ($506-531/mt) ex-works due to the softening in scrap prices. In Greece, price levels of around €400/mt ($506/mt) delivered to customer were mentioned in the last week. In this country, ex-Italy and ex-Turkey merchant bar offers have continued to play an important role in the price determination of local producers.
The picture in eastern Europe in the last week was the same as that in southern Europe: producers have continued to soften their prices and demand has maintained its low levels.
Though generally less affected by the global crisis than other countries and regions, merchant bar demand in the UAE and neighboring countries lacks strength for the time being.
In general, demand for merchant bars in Europe is at low levels under the influence of the sluggishness in certain merchant bar-consuming sectors such as construction, road and bridge building, and steel structures. In addition, in line with the continuously softening raw material and semi-finished product prices, merchant bar prices have also been declining. This situation places stockists in a dilemma, in that they are not sure whether they should buy material or not. Regarding the current week in the merchant bar markets, while there are no expectations of an increase in demand, everyone is wondering what the new scrap price levels will be?
€1= US$1.26553