Over the last two weeks, increases in raw material and semi-finished material prices have dominated the Turkish domestic and export merchant bar markets. In particular, with most mills' booked full through September for exports, an optimistic atmosphere has been evident in the market in recent weeks.
The decrease seen at the beginning of the week has surprised the Turkish domestic market which had been showing an upward trend for two weeks. Despite the continuing strength of scrap and billet prices, the decrease observed on Monday, June 29, has confused buyers and has given the impression of a continuation of the previous fluctuating trend. In the domestic merchant bar market where product variety is low, merchant bar offers given at the beginning of this week have been in the price range of TRY 830-860/mt ex-works, excluding VAT. Also, a recovery in demand levels has been observed.
On the export side, positive developments in terms of demand have been experienced in the merchant bar market in recent weeks. It is heard that most mills' order books are full till the end of September; meanwhile, the increasing trend of scrap and billet prices is also understood to have caused merchant bar export prices to rise. Merchant bar offers given from Turkey to the export markets are currently at levels of $550-570/mt FOB, while it is heard that not many transactions have been concluded at these levels. As for demand, the Middle Eastern and North African markets have maintained their popularity.
In addition to the mills' continuing scrap purchases and the increase in their booking price levels for scrap, the increases seen in import and domestic billet prices have constituted the main factors preventing merchant bar mills from lowering their export offers. Meanwhile, it is mentioned in the market that competition levels are also a factor causing domestic prices to move on a fluctuating trend.