After the US Department of Commerce announced last week preliminary antidumping margins in the case against rebar imports from Turkey, Taiwan and Japan, the US rebar market expected an immediate increase in import offers. However, because offers had already started to rise following the preliminary CVD margins announced the week prior, the less-than-expected AD margins for Turkish rebar (5.29-7.07 percent) has resulted in only a slight rise in import offers to the US this week.
Imported rebar in the US domestic market from Turkey is now in the range of $25.00-$26.00 cwt. ($500-$520/nt or $551-$573/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, reflecting an increase of $0.25 cwt. ($5/nt or $5.50/mt) in the last week.
Because Turkish offers are not expected to spike, expectations reported last week of new import rebar sources attempting to capture some market share have dwindled somewhat. Sources tell SteelOrbis that as long as Turkish rebar offers to the US remain around the current level—which could change, of course, once final AD margins are released in May—Turkey will remain the top source of US import rebar. As for the other sources in the ongoing trade case, Japan has been cast out of the US market with preliminary margins of 209.46 percent, and Taiwan, with margins ranging from 3.48-29.47 percent, will likely “stick around, but cautiously” according to sources.