Long steel mills in Turkey continue operating under challenging market conditions while facing high production costs versus low and slowing longs sales, particularly in the domestic market. The local buyers, who have quite sufficient stocks, have been decreasing their daily volumes of purchases, thus making mills’ prices lose another $5/mt over the past week. In addition, Ramadan is approaching and is expected to cause in around another 10 days a further slowdown in business activity. In such a situation, some companies, as SteelOrbis reported earlier, have decided to cut production, mainly on the rolling side, aiming to sell off stocks. Some mills, however, will have short-term maintenance works as well.
A few Marmara-based mills are offering rebar officially at $565/mt ex-works, down by $5/mt week on week, while Izmir region-based mills' official rebar prices are standing at around $545/mt ex-works, also down $5/mt week on week. One Iskenderun-based producer is still offering rebar at around $540/mt ex-works, stable over the same period. The overall workable rebar prices have settled at $540-560/mt ex-works, unchanged for large tonnages, while in the Marmara region smaller lots are being offered at $565/mt ex-works, also stable over the past week.
In the wire rod segment, domestic official prices in Turkey have settled at $550-575/mt ex-works, depending on the region, also falling by $5/mt on the higher end week on week.
Turkish official rebar export prices are standing at $545-565/mt FOB, down by $5/mt for February-early March shipments over the past week. Some sources reported they received rebar offers at $540/mt FOB from a few Turkish mills, which indicates generally negative market sentiment.
Turkish official wire rod offers are available at $560-580/mt for February-early March shipments, while the higher end seems a bit difficult to achieve under the current market conditions. The workable wire rod export price is evaluated at $550-565/mt FOB, down by $5/mt on the higher end from a week ago.
In the meantime, mills from Egypt are in the market with $540-545/mt FOB for rebar and $550-560/mt FOB for wire rod, while an Algerian mill has been offering wire rod at $535/mt FOB. Both origins are available for March shipments.
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