Turkey's local and export merchant bar markets have in the past week been characterized by silence, whereas the European markets are trying to increase their prices after the holidays.
In the last week of August, a softening of merchant bar prices has been observed due to local demand in Turkey even though the prices of raw material and of semi-finished steel have maintained their strength in Turkey's local and export markets. Merchant bar prices in the local Turkish market have been at TRY 800-850/mt ($532-565/mt) ex-works excluding VAT. Some price variation is seen in this country according to region. Meanwhile, merchant bar price levels in Turkey's export market are still at the range of $560-585/mt FOB for late October-early November shipment. The export markets in question are still the same ones, i.e. North Africa, the Middle East and the US.
In Europe, the price increase in rebars after the holidays is also planned for merchant bars. While some producers have already announced increases in merchant bar prices, it is thought that new increases are on the way in this region in general. European producers (which have to reflect the strong raw material prices in merchant bar prices after the holidays) think that the stockists and distributors, whose stock levels have decreased, will make purchases.
On the other hand, a different picture is seen in China's longs market, with serious price declines observed in the last couple of weeks in the Chinese local and export markets for longs. With very large tonnages in stock in China, Chinese long products may gain greater acceptance in the export markets due to their slackened prices, and such a situation could cause concerns for producers in other countries. While the same situation is also a real possibility for merchant bars, Chinese merchant bar exports have not yet had any great impact in the export markets. However, if the downtrend in the Chinese longs markets continues, a change upcoming days will show what may happen.