According to market sources,
Turkey's
rebar export offers have indicated no changes over the past week, remaining at $575-585/mt FOB on actual weight basis. Given the low transaction activity on the export side, some offers are heard below these price levels. This week activity has only improved in the UAE market for import materials, while two Turkish steelmakers have concluded sales for approximately 75,000 mt of
rebar in total to the country at price levels of $580-592/mt CFR on theoretical weight basis ($572-585/mt FOB on actual weight basis) over the past 10 days. Having witnessed increased activity in the past two weeks, import
rebar demand in the local Iraqi market has softened this week due to the local elections in the country, which will take place in the coming week. Overall, buyers in the Middle Eastern markets do not appear to be in any rush to conclude large-volume deals for Turkish
rebar at the moment since they are already occupied with their own domestic agendas and also given the unclear import
scrap price trend.
On the other hand, as according to information provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), with 617,294 mt of
rebar imports from
Turkey in 2013, the
US is the fourth biggest
rebar export destination for
Turkey. The
US Department of Commerce (
US DOC) announced on Monday, April 21 its affirmative preliminary determinations in the antidumping duty investigation regarding imports of
rebar from
Turkey, imposing 2.64 percent duty margins for Turkish mills, except for Habas. This decision may somewhat slow the flow of Turkish
rebar export activity to the
US, but is not expected to seriously harm
Turkey's
rebar export activity. This is because the
US DOC has announced duty margins in the range of 10.66-66.70 percent for Mexican
rebar, which may give Turkish
rebar an opportunity to replace Mexican materials in the
US import
rebar market.