During the past week, demand for Turkish wire rod exports in the international markets has been at low levels with buyers being away due to the Christmas and New Year holidays. On the other hand, the falling trend of import scrap quotations has provided relief for Turkish mills, and so Turkish wire rod export prices have fallen by $10/mt on the lower end and by $15/mt on the upper end week on week to $490-500/mt FOB.
Meanwhile, the quota of 1,058,110 mt imposed by the European Commission on wire rod imports has been completely used up. Following the decline recorded in Turkish wire rod export quotations, Turkish wire rod has gained a price advantage against domestically produced wire rod in the European Union region. As a result, EU-based buyers are showing interest in Turkish wire rod exports for February shipments, within the scope of the new quota which will come into force on February 3. On the other hand, it is heard that Turkey is allowed to export only 121,331 mt of wire rod to the EU in the February 2-June 30 2019 period, which is considered to be very limited.