Spurred by lower scrap prices in Turkey, import rebar offers to the US have dropped again this week. Traders still maintain that Turkish rebar prices still have “room to move downward”, although they are being cautious with adjusting their sales prices in the US. As such, despite lower quotes on their end, traders are still offering Turkish rebar to US customers this week in the general range of $20.00-$21.00 cwt. ($400-$420/nt or $441-$464/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, but some sources report offers for slightly underneath the low end of the range.
As for the US domestic rebar market, sources report “nothing interesting going on”, as it appears US mills are not too concerned about the scrap downtrend and the ever-widening margin between domestic spot prices and import offers. Transactions within the still-current spot range of $31.50-$32.50 cwt. ($630-$650/nt or $694-$717/mt) ex-mill are still trending closer to the lower end, with not much change expected in the near term.