A majority of international longs buyers have already started their holiday season with Christmas. Most Turkish mills have kept their export prices stable and buyers in the Turkish domestic market are in a wait and see stance following minimum wage announcement yesterday and Turkish Central Bank interest rate decision due tomorrow. The recent depreciation of Turkish lira is also a major bottleneck for the local rebar customers.
Although a few Turkish mills were testing $570-575/mt FOB last week, most producers seem to be offering wider range of $565-580/mt FOB depending on their ongoing bookings. The cargoes are available for late January-February shipments. However, above $575/mt FOB is a bit difficult to achieve under the current market conditions. No fresh rebar sales have been heard so far.
In the Turkish domestic rebar market, the official rebar prices and the workable rebar prices have settled at $565-580/mt ex-works, down by $5/mt on the higher end and $560-575/mt ex-works, also down by $5/mt on the lower end respectively, in the Marmara and Izmir regions, including Icdas A.S.
In the wire rod segment, most Turkish mills are offering at $580-590/mt FOB for late January-February shipment, stable week on week. In addition, workable Turkish domestic wire rod prices vary at $565-585/mt ex-works, also down $5/mt from last week.