The continued upward movement of import scrap prices in Turkey during the past week has enabled Turkish mills to raise their rebar export offers by an average of $20/mt week on week. As a result, Turkish rebar export offers have increased to $575-585/mt FOB on actual weight basis, while rebar export sales - which had increased last week - have lost momentum in the current week.
Market sources report that Turkish mills have only concluded rebar exports sales for small tonnages in the current week at $570-575/mt FOB on actual weight basis.
On the other hand, SteelOrbis has been informed that Turkish steelmakers are not planning to reduce their rebar export prices, due to their higher production costs. Actually, market sources believe that Turkish mills may increase their rebar export quotations further in the coming days in parallel with the rises seen in import scrap prices in Turkey.
Additionally, as Chinese steel exporters are out of the market due to the Chinese New Year holiday (Feb. 15-21), trading activity in the global steel market has slowed down. According to market sources, most buyers are planning to make their purchase decisions after seeing Chinese steel mills’ price strategy after the holiday, and so they are unwilling to conclude purchases for long delivery dates in the current period.