Turkish longs producers have been struggling with weak international demand after filling their order books for production in July and part of August. Another obstacle is financial as the dollar is now worth as much as the euro . This makes it difficult for Turkish mills to balance their dollar-based production costs and euro-based sales and shipments to European customers. In addition, Turkey’s import scrap market expects a softening of prices after the hitting $400/mt CFR level.
The current rebar export offers are at $700-725/mt FOB versus $700-720/mt FOB last week, for cargoes to be shipped in the last two weeks of August. The higher end seems a bit difficult to achieve for now due to the negative sentiment in the import scrap segment. “Hardly any negotiations are seen and everyone is watching,” a source told SteelOrbis. Due to the ongoing quota issues, most Turkish mills are offering rebar for September shipment to European customers.
In the Turkish domestic rebar market, most mills are offering rebar at around $720/mt ex-works, down by $10/mt over the past week. However, most local traders are in wait-and-see mode in order to monitor import scrap prices and the Turkish Central Bank’s interest rate decision due on Thursday, July 21.
In the Turkish wire rod export segment, a few mills are offering at $740-750/mt FOB, up $20-30/mt over the past two weeks, while a few mills are at $770/mt FOB for September shipments. However, these wire rod prices seem a bit high for the international market, when the sluggish demand and the negative sentiment in the import scrap segment are taken into account.