Price decreases have this week reigned over the local Turkish rebar market. Turkish producers started the week with the same price levels compared to last week. However, local rebar traders (who had been observing the price increase trend for a period of three weeks up to the middle of last week and who had been building up their stocks in that period) have been seeking to reduce their stock levels since the middle of last week due to the downturn in prices. End-users, however, have realized that prices have now entered a downtrend and so have delayed their purchases. Thus, local traders find themselves in a difficult position at the current time.
The rebar export offers of Turkish producers have this week registered a decrease. Having previously reflected the upward movements in Turkish domestic rebar prices in their export offers, in the final days of the current week Turkish producers' rebar export offers have weakened to $490/mt FOB Turkey on actual weight basis.
Saudi traders and end-users have heard that Turkish producers' offers for export to the Middle East (particularly for Saudi Arabia) have gone up in the past week. For this reason, the Saudi traders and end-users have thought that prices could go up further and so have accelerated their purchases. On the other hand, local Saudi producers had been considering price hikes for December due to the increasing end-user demand. However, after one local producer in Saudi Arabia reduced prices by SAR 770/mt ($205/mt), other producers in Saudi Arabia have this week had to decrease their prices by the same margin. According to the general expectation for Saudi Arabia, the high stock levels of the Saudi producers may melt due to increasing end-user demand and the considerable decreases in price levels; in addition, there is a rising expectation in the domestic market that local rebar prices will be shaped according to end-user demand and may even see a recovery and start moving up again.
Looking at the local UAE rebar market, last week imported rebar price levels had increased by AED 150/mt ($41/mt) to the level of AED 1,800-2,000/mt ($490-544/mt) delivered to site on theoretical weight basis. The price range in question has this week remained stable and, if prices hover at the same levels in the upcoming days, this stability may help the local UAE rebar market to regain its long-sought confidence.