Holiday mood dominates merchant bar market

The Turkish domestic merchant bar market, which was active in the first weeks of December before sliding towards stagnation, has slowed down further under the influence of the approaching holiday period. The domestic producers and trading companies expect the domestic market to become active only after the holidays are over. This week, angle prices in the domestic market are at $800-840/mt+VAT, while flat bar prices are at $810-850/mt + VAT. The ongoing product shortages are still continuing due to the lack of billet supply in the domestic market. The high billet prices and the two-month delay in the delivery of orders by the rolling mills have prevented rolling mills from carrying out production in all sizes, thus resulting in product shortages. For example, rolling mills are not able to draw 65x42x5 NPU materials when there is no 100x100 billet. This situation has also created difficulties for the trading firms. Developments in the billet market in the New Year will play an important role in determining the future domestic merchant bar trend. The export market recorded a slight movement two weeks ago with the increase in the Euro/US Dollar exchange rate. However, the decrease in the exchange rate has reduced the activity. Producers have raised their prices due to the high billet prices and the expectation that Europe will increase its purchases after the holiday. Turkish rolling mills are offering equal angles for export at $550-565/mt FOB on actual weight basis, while export offers for flat bars are at $560-575/mt FOB on actual weight basis. The slowdown has not only been seen in the European markets, but also in the North Africa. These regions have also reduced their purchases under the influence of the holiday mood. These regions are expected to return to the market in the post-holiday period. Last week, a number of bookings to South Africa were reported. With the holiday period beginning now, we will have to wait until after the New Year in order to see which new trends develop in the market. In any case, we can safely predict that billet demand and prices will be the determining factors in the merchant bar market price levels of the New Year.