Turkish mills have made an attempt to increase their longs export offer prices after the slight uptrend seen in the latest couple of import scrap deals. Another reason is the cancellation of the tax rebates for rebar and wire rod in China, which may temporarily support Turkish sales to Asia. Moreover, export sales of rebar from Turkey are now livelier compared to local sales, where the financial situation and lockdowns have negatively impacted demand.
Most Turkish mills are offering rebar at $655-670/mt FOB, versus $640-660/mt FOB a week earlier, SteelOrbis has heard. Some mills are about to enter maintenance periods and so they have no intention of giving discounts, while some of them have withdrawn their offers.
Latin America is still one of the key rebar export destinations for Turkey. A 10,000 mt lot is rumoured to have been sold to Chile, while another fresh deal has been closed to Jamaica with no further details available for now. According to sources, one mill succeeded in selling to the US at around $655/mt FOB. An Iskenderun-based mill has concluded a rebar deal to Yemen at $655/mt FOB this week, sources say. Another sale, this time to Asia, has been discussed in the market as having been done at $675/mt FOB, with no details available.
In the local Turkish rebar market, most mills in the Izmir and Marmara regions are offering rebar at $630/mt ex-works, while local rebar spot prices were at around $620-630/mt ex-warehouse as of April 28. A Samsun region-based mill has announced that it has closed its rebar sales until May 25 as its export order books are nearly full, including for billet. Moreover, according to sources, a rebar lot of 12,000-15,000 mt was sold at $620/mt ex-works in the Izmir region earlier this week, while one Marmara-based mill sold around 20,000 mt of rebar at $625/mt ex-works yesterday.
In the wire rod segment, a few Turkish mills are still voicing official wire rod export offers for June shipments at $720-725/mt FOB, stable over the past week. A few mills have also started quoting for July shipment. A wire rod deal has also been rumored to the Netherlands this week, without any further details available for now.