European merchant bar market maintains its sluggishness

Last week, the European merchant bar market continued to expect prices to hit the bottom. In general, the softness remained in European merchant bar prices, while demand was still slack.
 
The softening in the Turkish domestic and export markets continued to be seen under the effect of the downtrend in local and import billet prices last week. Looking at the Turkish domestic market before the Ramadan festival, the merchant bar prices in this market, depending on size, thickness and region, were at the following levels: small IPN-UPN were priced at TRY 940-1,020/mt ($761-826/mt), 80-100-120 mm IPE were at TRY 990-1,250/mt ($801-1,012/mt), angles stood at TRY 940-1,020/mt ($761-826/mt), and flat bars and square bars were at TRY 950-1,030/mt ($769-834/mt) - all prices are ex-works, on actual weight basis and excluding VAT; however, it should be taken into consideration that traders with previously taken positions may give offers at lower levels than the abovementioned prices.
 
 As regards Turkish exports, last week it was heard that inquiries were made in North Africa and Eastern Europe and that a booking was concluded in Romania. In general, the slackening in prices continued. During the week in question, Turkish rolling mills offered angles for export at $820-840/mt FOB on actual weight basis for October shipments. In addition, flat bars were offered at $830-850/mt FOB, 80-100-120 mm IPE was offered at $940-960/mt FOB, IPN-UPN was offered at $830-850/mt FOB, 80-100-120 mm IPE A was offered at $950-970/mt FOB and 80-100-120 mm IPE AA was offered at $960-980/mt FOB - all on actual weight basis and also for October shipments.  It should be taken into consideration that traders with previously taken positions may give offers at lower levels than the abovementioned prices.
 
Moving to Spain, no change was seen last week in the low levels of demand. The prices continued to go down, while inventories maintained their high levels. In the Spanish domestic market, angles of 40-100 mm were offered at €680-705/mt, square bars of 10-25 mm were offered at €660/mt, IPN-UPN of 80-160 mm were offered at €750-770/mt and IPE of 80-180 mm was offered at €800-820/mt delivered to customer. It was also heard that lower priced offers may have been made.
 
The same situation seen in Spain also applies to Italy, with reports from the country indicating poor demand. Last week, merchant bar prices in the Italian domestic market stood at €670-750/mt delivered to customer, excluding VAT.
 
Switching to Portugal, prices in the last week marked a drop of around €30/mt compared to the previous week. Thus, last week's merchant bar prices in the Portuguese merchant bar market varied in a range of €730-740/mt delivered to customer.
 
In Greece, the producers are facing great difficulty in determining prices. It is heard that demand is pretty soft in this market.
 
As regards the UAE, prices continue to slacken with the effect of Ramadan and the end-users are not active in bookings for the moment. During the last week, small and medium size merchant bar prices in the UAE domestic market stood at AED 3,500-3,900/mt ($952-1,061/mt) delivered to customer on a theoretical weight basis.
 
All in all, the European merchant bar market continues to wait for prices to bottom out.