With the Turkish lira having depreciated by forty percent against the US dollar over the month up to the start of the current week (in the wake of the decision by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors' (FED) to cut interest rates by 0.5 percent, i.e. from 5.25 percent to 4.75 percent), during the current week the Turkish lira has strengthened in value against the US dollar exchange - from $1.75 to $1.56. The rebar price levels in the local Turkish market were at TRY 780-810/mt early this week. However, after the abovementioned change in the exchange rate, coming towards the end of the week the rebar price levels have remained the same on US dollar basis but on Turkish lira basis have declined by TRY 50/mt to the levels of TRY 740-760/mt. On the Turkish rebar export front, at the end of the week no change has been observed from the offers given at the start of the week: offers are still in a range of $400-460/mt FOB Turkey.
Approaching the end of the current week, the news of scrap bookings concluded by Turkish mills has created excitement in the local Turkish rebar market. Traders, whose stocks have been at low levels, have been unable to decide whether they should purchase or not. However, the local traders know that the fluctuations observed in the local Turkish market since the beginning of 2008 have been related to the international markets and export deals. Taking this into account, the traders have not been interested in the activity in the local market due to the lack of activity in the export markets. Consequently, they have not increased their stock levels.
End-user demand in the local Turkish rebar market has this week been more active on account of the fairly low price levels available. In particular, end-users whose projects are imminent have not hesitated to buy some of the rebars they need. However, having considered that price levels may decline further, some end-users have delayed their purchases further.
Meanwhile, the Middle Eastern rebar market has still been losing ground. Price levels in the UAE domestic market have this week decreased compared to last week. It is heard that the local traders (whose stocks are at high levels due to the price levels which have been on a continuous decline for three months now) have been encountering certain difficulties. Although end-user demand is lively in the UAE, buyers are abstaining from purchases as prices have been declining steadily. Thus, the value of traders' stocks has been decreasing day by day. The stock levels of UAE traders have been melting slowly on a tonnage basis, and melting rapidly in terms of value; thus traders have been abstaining from buying large tonnages. Export offers to the UAE have this week been at price levels of $450-480/mt CFR Dubai. On the local market side, rebar prices in the UAE have this week been in the range of AED 1,700-2,000/mt ($463-544/mt).
Rebar price levels in the local Syrian market have also decreased this week. While Ukrainian origin rebar prices have been at considerably higher levels compared to local production material, the local prices of rebars in the Syrian market have been at levels of SYP 24,000-25,000/mt ($507-528/mt) ex-works on actual weight basis, with payment deferred daily, excluding VAT.
Local rebar prices have this week again softened in Iran. While local production material has been at $805/mt, ex-CIS material has been at $500-520/mt CFR Anzali ports (or $430-440/mt FOB).