Although most Turkish rebar mills have filled their order books for June, their rebar export prices have remained unchanged over the past week and are still at $480-490/mt FOB on actual weight basis due to slightly lower scrap quotations and international buyers’ wait-and-see stance.
Meanwhile, developments in the Far East market, where Turkish mills have taken advantage of sales opportunities recently, are not positive. At the end of April, Malaysia’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry announced that it has initiated an antidumping (AD) duty investigation against rebar imports from Singapore and Turkey. After this announcement, the purchasing strategy of traders in Singapore, who usually purchases Turkish rebar to sell to Malaysia, is being closely monitored. On the other hand, having been absent from the Turkish rebar market in May, it is not certain whether buyers in Hong Kong will turn towards Turkish rebar imports in June.
In the meantime, Middle Eastern buyers will be out of the international rebar market during the end-of-Ramadan holiday.
Additionally, Turkish mills’ negotiations with US buyers for rebar sales have not been completed. If Turkey fails to conclude rebar sales to the US after the holiday period, international buyers will gain the upper hand in negotiations. In this scenario, Turkish mills are expected to reduce their rebar export offers. But if sales are made to the US, then Turkish mills are expected to increase their rebar export offer prices slightly.