Turkish steel mills have passed on their higher production costs caused by the increases seen in import scrap quotations in Turkey in the middle of last week to customers in the international markets, increasing their rebar export prices by $15/mt on the lower end and by $5/mt on the upper end to $525-535/mt FOB. In the current week, reports were heard of rebar export deals from Turkey to Israel and Europe at $520/mt FOB.
It is observed that demand in Turkish steelmakers’ previous main target markets such as Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the US has still failed to improve, while trading activity to these markets is not expected to revive any time soon.
Meanwhile, Chinese steel mills have revised their steel prices downwards this week after the long national holiday (Oct. 1-8) in China. SteelOrbis has been informed that buyers in the international markets are seeking to gain a clearer perspective on the market before concluding new purchases in light of the rises seen in global raw material costs and also given the slight rise seen in Chinese long steel quotations. In addition to these factors, overseas buyers are in no rush to conclude deals for Turkish rebar due to the upward revision by Turkish mills of their rebar export prices.
In the meantime, the date for the start of restrictions on production and suspension of public projects in Tangshan previously announced for the period between November 15 and March 15 was this week brought forward to yesterday, October 12. The restrictions will be effective until March 15, 2018, and during this period work on construction, road and water projects will be halted. Although the production cuts are foreseen to cause rises in steel prices due to potential supply problems, demand in the Chinese steel market is expected to weaken amid the halting of public projects. Following the bringing forward of the date for the start of restrictions, long steel prices in China have increased today, October 13, though the future trend of the steel market is still unclear. Meanwhile, buyers in the international steel market are expected to conclude new deals after seeing the new prices announced by Chinese steelmakers.