Egyptian importers had concluded massive rebar purchases from Turkey in the first four months of 2009 before slowing down their purchases in the final week of April, and finally stopping their purchases in general in May. Consequently, Turkish mills' rebar export offers have recently started to decline. Turkish rebar export offers, which were at levels of $480-500/mt FOB on actual weight basis last week, have decreased to $425-440/mt FOB on actual weight basis as of today, May 29. Billet prices are also observed to have softened in parallel with rebar prices. However, the decrease seen in billet prices is slower than the decrease in finished steel prices and this has forced rebar producers to make careful calculations as regards their scrap and billet purchases. Turkish and Middle Eastern rebar rolling mills, reluctant to buy billet at high prices while selling rebar at low levels, are occasionally hesitating to give definite offers for rebar.
The Turkish domestic rebar market has this week (May 25-29) been moving on a fluctuating trend. Prices in this market, which recorded decreases of TRY 20/mt on both Monday and Tuesday, showed a recovery on Wednesday; however, on Thursday prices again switched to a downtrend. The above mid-week recovery has been perceived as a price movement aimed at returning to the level of TRY 800/mt, including VAT, after domestic market prices had dropped below that level.