Turkey’s rebar export pricing has been vague this week, mainly due to the holiday period and the significant lack of the demand. Some mills have decided to wait for next week to announce their offers after evaluating the market after the holidays. In the meantime, some of the producers have said they are ready to deal at levels lower that the pre-holiday levels.
Currently, export rebar prices are estimated within the range of $880-900/mt FOB, versus $900/mt FOB seen earlier. Some mills with limited capacity are offering up to $920/mt FOB still, but this level is considered not to be workable at all. Some suppliers are ready to sell at $870/mt FOB. Still, taking into account that export demand is extremely silent, the current ex-Turkey rebar offers are considered to be overpriced. According to market information, some bids were there at $830-850/mt FOB and were rejected by the mills, though some players believe it was a mistake. “Scrap might be heading to $500/mt CFR and even with today’s level [of prices for scrap] the rebar margins are over $100/mt. So, I think rebar prices are set to decline,” a source told SteelOrbis.
In the wire rod segment, the situation is slightly better, taking into account the initially lower production capacity. The export offers from several mills are at $950-960/mt FOB, which means the offer range has narrowed down from $940-1,000/mt FOB last week. The market players believe wire rod sales will become livelier soon since EU buyers are expected to restart imports for the next round of the EU quotas.