The recent drop in import scrap prices in Turkey coupled with the insufficient demand for Turkish longs products overall has resulted in a $20/mt drop in Turkish rebar and wire rod export offers. While Turkish mills have been trying to generate sales, most international buyers have been delaying new purchases in order to have a better understanding of the scrap price trend.
Turkey’s rebar export offers are now at $630-640/mt FOB and some market sources report slightly lower levels may be available for some serious buyers. Most offers are for May shipment. Once again, there is a lot of discussion regarding sales to Asia from Turkey, which, however, have not been confirmed by the sellers by the time of publication. According to sources, a rebar batch has been sold to Singapore at $635/mt FOB, with no further details available. In addition, some deals have been rumoured as having been closed for May and June shipments to both Hong Kong and Singapore at $625/mt FOB, which is considered to be a normal level according to the current business conditions in the Turkish market.
In the local market, most Turkish mills are offering rebar at $635-650/mt ex-works in the Marmara and Izmir regions, while spot prices were at $611-622/mt ex-warehouse yesterday, March 16. Sources report that demand in the local market has been rather slow.
In the wire rod segment, some Turkish mills have recently started voicing export offers at $700-720/mt, versus $720-730/mt FOB last week, while a few mills are offering higher levels for extended shipments.