Although rebar prices out of Turkey have increased for several export destinations in the last few days (mostly in the Middle East), US-based traders tell SteelOrbis that the trend isn’t so rosy in the US import rebar market. Slackened demand—from both decreased summer activity and a growing glut of positions at the ports—is the primary reason behind traders’ reluctance to accept higher offers, and some sources say they have even been able to book for slightly lower offer prices than last week.
“Turkish mills want to increase they’re offers to us,” one source said, “but they know it won’t fly right now.” As such, the general offer range for Turkish rebar imports to the US are still hovering around the already-wide range $20.50-$22.50 cwt. ($410-$450/nt or $452-$496/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, with the potential to widen further in the near-term. And as for those ample positions, the latest import data show 145,998 mt in Turkish rebar import permits so far in July (as of the 19th), compared to 124,835 mt for the entire month of June.