In this week's Turkish merchant bar market analysis, we will take a look at the year-on-year changes seen in the January-September period of this year in Turkey's merchant bar exports and will also have a look at the figures for September this year compared to September last year, based on the data lately published by the Istanbul Mineral and Metals Exporters' Association (IMMIB).
First of all, in the January-September period this year, Turkish merchant bar exports amounted to about 1,199,000 mt, not indicating any great decline from approximately 1,260,000 mt in the corresponding period of 2008.
In January-September 2008, Turkey's most important merchant bar export markets were (figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand):
•- UK, Romania and Morocco were the leading countries with 113,000 mt each
•- Followed by the UAE with 93,000 mt
•- Greece with 77,000 mt
•- Belgium with 61,000, mt
•- Saudi Arabia with 48,000 mt
However, in January-August 2009 Turkey's most important merchant bar export markets were (rounded to the nearest thousand):
•- Iran with 217,000 mt
•- Iraq with 149,000 mt
•- Morocco with 91,000 mt
•- Saudi Arabia with 75,000 mt
Meanwhile, if we consider the figures on a monthly basis, we see that whereas Turkish merchant bar exports amounted to approximately 132,000 mt in September last year, they decreased to around 120,000 mt in September this year.
In September 2008, Turkey's most important merchant bar export markets were (rounded to the nearest thousand):
•- Morocco with 18,000 mt
•- Greece with 11,000 mt
•- Romania with 8,000 mt
In September 2009, Turkey's most important merchant bar export markets were (rounded to the nearest thousand):
•- Morocco with 25,000 mt
•- Iran with 14,000 mt
•- Saudi Arabia with 12,000 mt
The above statistics indicate that there has been no great change in Turkey's merchant bar export volume in 2009 compared to 2008. In addition, as remarked in previous analyses where such comparisons were made, Turkey's export markets for merchant bar are seen to be characterized by change and variation, in particular with a shift observed over the last year from the European markets towards markets in North Africa and the Middle East.
Returning to the current market situation, the downtrend in the local Turkish finished steel market in recent weeks is also showing its influence on the Turkish merchant bar export side. Although it is heard that the merchant bar export offers from Turkey are now generally at $540-550/mt FOB, it is also possible to hear lower prices. It seems that the fluctuating trend of semi and finished steel prices observed since the beginning of 2009 continues to reign in the market in general.