As mentioned in SteelOrbis' billet analysis of last week, billet prices had increased to $550-555/mt + VAT in the Turkish local market. Also, after selling at $527/mt + VAT, Kardemir had closed its billet sales. During this week - yesterday, to be precise - Kardemir announced another increase in its price list, upping its billet price to $545/mt + VAT. Due to the rise in billet prices and the movement in the US dollar exchange rate, the domestic market also saw an increase in merchant bar prices. On Wednesday, merchant bar prices, which on Monday had started with a rise of TRY 10/mt + VAT ($7.15 + VAT), were at TRY 865-875/mt + VAT ($618- 625/mt + VAT) for angles, TRY 875-885/mt ($625-632/mt + VAT) for flat bars and TRY 900-905/mt + VAT ($642.50-645/mt + VAT) for NPIs and NPUs. On Thursday, the market saw another increase due to the exchange rate of TRY 1.38 against the US dollar. On the whole, as of today, the Turkish mills are unwilling to issue a price list to the domestic market.
Kardemir lowered its prices for IPE 160 and HEA/HEB (120-260) beams on Thursday by €30-40 + VAT to a level of €580 + VAT (TRY 1.086/mt + VAT) and €680 + VAT (TRY 1.273/mt + VAT) respectively, whereas the producer has increased its prices for rebar and billet.
Increased billet prices in this period have caused the Turkish rolling mills to abstain from making export offers. Offers for angles and flat bars increased to a level of $660/mt FOB, but the rolling mills are still unwilling to make offers since the billet prices are high and demand from Europe is low.
The upswinging movement seen in Chinese merchant bar prices has continued due to the increased Chinese taxes. For September 2007 shipments, offer levels for angles from China have reached $600-605/mt FOB, which reduces the demand for angles from this source. As mentioned in our previous analyses, these factors are contributing to reducing the Chinese mills' exports to the Middle East and Africa and increasing the Turkish producers' exports to these regions.