Local steel rebar prices in Russia have dropped since early November and this development had been expected by market players, taking into account that the market situation had been overheated for a while. However, despite the significant discounts provided by the mills over the past couple of weeks, domestic rebar offers are still above $800/mt ex-works, which largely keeps producers away from active exports.
As compared to early November, Russia’s domestic rebar prices decreased by $108-131/mt (RUB 8,000-10,000/mt) to $817-829/mt (RUB 72,000-73,000/mt) ex-works/CPT levels seen in the Southern and Central regions, specifically. Although the decline has been rather sharp, the market is viewed by players as overheated and additional discounts are expected. “This is still not a reasonable price in the market,” a producer said.
Taking into account high local rebar prices, mills are still hardly active in exports, particularly on the destinations where there is competition with ex-Turkey $735-740/mt FOB offers. However, some negotiations have been heard with some European buyers, where Russia-based mills compete with suppliers from Greece and Italy for January shipments, SteelOrbis has been informed.
Prices in RUB include 20 percent VAT.
$1 = RUB 73.4.
