Turkish rebar mills have been trying to convince the international buyers to close some deals, but the customers prefer to be on hold. They are either watching the situation in the raw materials or asking for the rebar offer close to ex-Turkey export billet price, which is not yet acceptable for the mills.
For now Turkish producers manage to maintain their export rebar prices at $670-680/mt FOB for late October shipments. One of the reasons is the absence of significant fluctuations in the scrap prices this week. “Far Eastern buyers [from Hong Kong specifically] are asking below $700/mt CFR for rebar, when the average freight is minimum $80/mt. It equals to around $620/mt FOB, which is not workable price for now,” a source told SteelOrbis. “Most international buyers, even on the regular export destinations such as Israel, are not asking for material due to the uncertainty in the raw material segment,” another source mentioned. Moreover, since the demand for rebar is limited, the large discounts will hardly boost significant sales.
In the meantime, Turkey’s quota in the EU has been one of the issues to discuss in the market this week. According to sources, Turkey-based mills sold around 105,000 mt of rebar to Europe, which is above the allowed quota of 62,000 mt for clearance on October 1, 2021.
In Turkish domestic rebar market, the producers’ prices decreased by $5/mt over the week to $660-670/mt ex-works. However, the discounts are there for the serious orders. Today, on September 23, Turkish Central Bank decreased the interest rate by 1 percentage point to 18 percent. According to sources, the move may trigger some sales in the domestic markets as the buyers might target to take advantage of the currency fluctuations.
In the wire rod segment, a few mills are offering $775-780/mt FOB, while slightly lower levels are available for the serious buyers, stable over the week. A few mills are currently offering limited tonnage for late October shipment, while one mill has started quoting wire rod for December shipment. No fresh sales have been reported this week.