International rebar buyers are still mainly on hold for new purchases while monitoring the raw material price trend. This situation resulted in silence specifically in the Turkish rebar export segment. Business for Turkish wire rod exports seems to be somewhat better, sources say.
Most Turkish producers have kept their official rebar export prices at $670-680/mt FOB for November shipments, while a limited tonnage is still available for late October shipment. A 10,000 mt lot of rebar has been traded to Yemen at around $670/mt FOB on the actual weight basis, with the cargo to be shipped in early November. In the meantime, the market has been full of talk about a sizeable rebar batch sold to Singapore at $720-725/mt CFR this week. However, this has not been confirmed by the time of publication. “It is a regular rumor which is circulating in the market, but no such deal has been concluded to Singapore,” one source mentioned.
The European new quota period will begin on Friday, October 1 and customs clearance for previously booked volumes will start. The quota for the fourth quarter is expected to be filled and exceeded, thus putting pressure on the next quota round to be opened from January 1.
In the Turkish domestic rebar market, the general price range is at $665-670/mt ex-works, versus $660-670/mt ex-works a week earlier. However, most local traders are in wait-and-see mode as they are closely watching the import scrap price trend and ex-Turkey rebar export deals.
In the wire rod segment, a few Turkish mills are offering at $770-780/mt FOB, down by $5/mt on the lower end. According to sources, a few mills are applying an aggressive pricing policy to generate sales for November-December shipment. A fresh wire rod sale of around 18,000 mt of wire rod is rumored to have been concluded to Europe at $755/mt FOB for December shipment, with no details disclosed. In addition, a 2,500-3,000 mt lot of wire rod has been traded to Israel at $770/mt FOB for November shipment this week.