Will softened Turkish rebar offers revive Egyptian import activity?

Last week, the Egyptian rebar import market was fairly quiet and Turkish rebar offers to the country were quite scarce. In addition, Turkish mills' rebar export offers on FOB basis were even higher than Egyptian buyers' price expectations on CIF basis. Weak rebar demand in Egypt, coupled with local buyers' expectations for lower rebar import offers, which are even below domestic prices, have made the conclusion of new rebar import transactions almost impossible.
 
However, following the softening in Turkish mills' rebar export offers today, April 18, rebar offers from Turkey to Egypt have declined to $675/mt CIF. SteelOrbis has learned from market sources that Egyptian buyers are not inclined to show interest in these decreased offer price levels, as their price idea is standing at about $660-670/mt CIF. Nevertheless, as Turkish mills' offers are now closer to local buyers' expectations, particularly as compared to last week, it is thought that Egyptian buyers may now conclude new transactions from Turkey and thus Egyptian rebar import activity may revive.