Turkish merchant bar export offer move down slightly

Turkish merchant bar producers’ export offers have decreased slightly by $10/mt over the past two weeks to $510-530/mt FOB, for July shipments. It is observed that there is plenty of room for negotiation during actual sales of large volumes. Hence, buyers’ firm bids for Turkish merchant bar exports are at $500-505/mt FOB. Also, merchant bar demand in the international markets is at low levels.

Most of the price inquiries received by Turkish mills for merchant bar are coming from North Africa, Latin America and the Far East. Meanwhile, domestic prices of billet at $445-450/mt ex-works are making it difficult for Turkish mills to offer competitive merchant bar export prices since billet is used as raw material in merchant bar production.

Given the weakness of demand and lower import scrap prices in Turkey, market sources state that, if domestic billet prices move down in the coming week, Turkey’s merchant bar export offers may also fall further.

Turkish merchant bar export prices are currently at the following levels:

All prices are on FOB basis and for July shipment.