European, Middle East and CIS prices indicate increase this week

Local wire rod and rebar market in Italy reached Euro 430/mt on delivered to customers' premises, by rising Euro 15/mt at the beginning of the week. Export prices were at Euro 420-425/mt FOB. Prices are expected to rise further despite the long holidays in Italy during April. AENOR-certificated 20 mm of domestic rebar price in Spain also increased Euro 5-10/mt to around Euro 515-520/mt on delivered to customers' premises this week. It is heard that mills are expected to increase prices further next week. Generally, European long product market prices increased this week. The increase in European domestic prices may support Italians, who have difficulty in competing with Ukrainians in Algerian market, to export other European countries. Domestic rebar prices in Israel were at around $525/mt this week. It is heard that domestic prices may increase further next week. Turkish mills reportedly booked rebar at $505/mt CFR for end June loadings. Furthermore, it is heard that Ukrainian origin rebar and wire rod offers and bookings are at $480-490/mt CFR. The accumulated demand in UAE caused an increase in local prices. This week, prices climbed towards AED 2.000/mt ($522-544/mt) and closed to AED 2,100/mt ($548-572/mt). Turkish mills have concluded sales at around $500-510/mt CFR on theoretical weight basis at the beginning of the week. Turkish mills are known as the largest rebar supplier of the UAE. Therefore, their export price levels into other countries will certainly impact the price levels in the UAE. Ukrainian origin wire rod offers increased sharply to around $440-445/ton FOB. Even levels at $450/mt FOB were heard. The main demand for these levels came from Middle East. Rebar price was at around $420/mt FOB. The intensified competition in Algerian market seems to prevent rebar prices to show sharp increases as wire rod prices. The long product prices indicated an increase in Europe, Middle East and CIS. In contrast, Turkish domestic market experienced a decline this week. However, many market players considered this softening as a correction instead of a decline as Turkish domestic market showed a huge upturn. Furthermore, rebar export bookings, which rose $10/mt compared to last week, supported this situation. Scrap trend needs to be followed closely in order to monitor that of the long products in the coming days. Stagnation dominated scrap markets this week. There have been various comments especially about the direction of Black Sea scrap. Market players can set healthy and long-term expectations about the trend of long product prices with the determination of the scrap trend.