Posted on 20 Feb 2019
Rebar prices in Germany have gained strength, and are expected to continue to do so going forward, after touching the most recent low in early February. Base prices are now seen back at the €300/tonne ($340/t) mark, which equates to a delivered price of €565/t.
“We had a dip in the first one-and-a-half weeks of February, when mills wooed orders, and you could get it for €270,” a buyer at a stockholder in central Germany tells Kallanish. Currently, “… with some luck, you’ll get it [… rebar] for between €280-290, but more likely for €300,” he says.
The current price range is confirmed by a stockholder on the Rhine, who was otherwise oblivious to the dip at the beginning of this month. He does agree however that the price is strengthening, with some potential to gain further, ”… but probably not noticeably much,” he adds.
The central German buyer is a little more convinced about an upcoming rise because “… scrap is heard rising by €20/t, and the mills certainly will not ignore that.” He assumes that the demand remains “… extremely good”, and that “… we will not see a downturn before, say, the end of June.”
The Rhine-based manager is not quite so sure, citing a cost squeeze at construction firms that continues to depress sentiment despite high levels of activity. Both agree however that the EU’s safeguard measures and the limitation on imports will have a big say in either stabilising prices or even driving them up.
