Local Turkish rebar market declines for first time since early February

The upward movement of import scrap prices in Turkey as of the first days of February had given way to a sideways trend last week, while buyers had started to wonder if the uptrend of the local Turkish rebar market would come to an end in the current week against the backdrop of the declines seen in Chinese semi-finished and finished steel prices since the beginning of March. However, the depreciation of the Turkish lira against the US dollar caused domestic rebar prices in Turkey to maintain their rising trend amid occasional accelerations of purchases. With the Turkish lira gaining strength against the US dollar for the last two days (March 21-22), domestic rebar prices in Turkey have fallen for the first time since the beginning of February, also on account of the weakness of demand. Accordingly, domestic rebar prices in Turkey have declined by TRY 17-34/mt since March 19, after setting a new record as prices in Turkey’s Marmara region had reached TRY 2,432/mt ex-warehouse on the same date.

Additionally, uncertainties in the global markets resulting from the 25 percent Section 232 import tariffs in the US which are expected to come into effect this week and from the declining trend of Chinese rebar and billet export quotations have contributed to the low demand levels for Turkish rebar during the past week. Accordingly, having received weak demand from both their domestic and export markets, Turkish rebar producers are expected to reduce their prices on dollar basis further in the coming days.

As of today, March 22, traders’ rebar offers in the Turkish domestic market are as follows:

All prices are ex-warehouse and on actual weight basis and exclude VAT.

$1 = TRY 3.92