While demand for Spanish rebar exports in the international markets is still weak, it is observed that the competition between Spanish suppliers and local mills in the US market - an important market for Spanish rebar exports - is exerting further pressure on prices. Although Spanish rebar export offers are currently at €475/mt ($532/mt) FOB, market sources believe that they may fall further in the short term given the weakness of demand, the downward trend of scrap quotations, and also due to Italian mills’ current rebar export prices at €470/mt ($526/mt) FOB.
Since Turkey, which previously was the biggest import rebar source of the US, has been out of the US market for a long time now due to the 50 percent duty on Turkish steel imports, Spanish rebar suppliers have increased their share in the market. Spanish rebar offers to the US, which are at $744/mt DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, are more attractive than the offers from Spain’s European competitors. However, with US domestic scrap prices falling in the May buy-cycle, a possible downward revision in US rebar producers’ prices may intensify the competition with import rebar offers.
€1 = $1.12