Turkish longs producers have recently seen relatively good demand in their domestic market and, moreover, despite slack rebar exports, firmer import scrap prices have allowed them to gradually increase their local offers for rebar and wire and gain some acceptance among buyers. A similar increase has been seen in export prices, but low demand coupled with lower prices coming from North Africa will hardly allow Turkish mills to achieve their targeted levels in deals.
In the Turkish domestic rebar market, official offers have settled at $570-590/mt ex-works depending on the region, up $10/mt over the past week. Mills’ highest targets are in the Marmara region at the moment. Moreover, workable levels across Turkey have settled at $565-585/mt ex-works, also indicating a $10/mt increase. An Iskenderun-based mill has set its official rebar price at around $575/mt ex-works, up by $8/mt from the previous week. Sources report the latest workable rebar prices in the region are standing at around $570/mt ex-works, up by $5/mt week on week.
Following the big rise in rebar spot prices earlier this week, most local buyers seem to be showing resistance to further price increases, so trading activity seems to be slowing as the week is about to end. The size availability problem also seems to have been relieved during this period. However, if import scrap prices do not show any dramatic rollback, more active restocking is likely to be seen in the first half of December.
As regards exports, Turkey’s rebar offers are available at $565-575/mt FOB for late December-January shipments, indicating an increase of $10/mt over the past week. Last week, around 5,000-10,000 mt of rebar were sold to the United Kingdom at around $560/mt FOB, SteelOrbis has heard. As a result, $560-570/mt FOB might be considered workable under the current market conditions, but only occasionally. The current price level for ex-Egypt rebar is at $540/mt FOB, which is much lower than prices from Turkey.
Generally, demand is expected to slow down in December as most international buyers are unwilling to restock at the year-end due to VAT issues and the holiday season. Some negotiations are ongoing with European buyers, in particular in the Balkans and the United Kingdom.
In the wire rod segment, export prices have settled at $575-585/mt FOB for late December-January shipments, rising by $10/mt over the past week. Locally, workable wire rod prices have also increased by $10/mt, to $570-580/mt ex-works this week.