Posted on 01 Oct 2019
Buyers in Turkey’s merchant bar export markets were very quiet and delaying their purchases last week. Consequently, Turkish merchant bar producers had to decrease their offer prices further, despite the fact they had difficulties in sourcing billet at desired prices.
Turkish producers’ offer levels stand at $445-460/tonne for angles, $450-465/t for IPN-UPN sections, $455-475/t for flat bars and $455-470/t for IPE sections, all on an fob Turkey basis. However, depending on the location and the raw material cost of the producer, lower offer prices are also available, observes Kallanish.
A Turkish merchant bar producer bemoans: “The whole week was very quiet, with very limited demand. We spent the week negotiating for very small quantities only. I had a bid from an Israeli customer at $420/t fob in containers for angles. Another Middle Eastern customer bid below $400/t fob. We cannot meet customer expectations at these levels, which are far below our costs – not affordable at all.”
Another re-roller tells Kallanish: “We are not able to buy billet at below $370/t cfr today. Even for $370/t cfr, there are very limited sellers in the market. Adding our production and transportation costs on top, how can you meet customers’ expectations? This is far from reality.”
He adds: “Considering the high volume of scrap purchases this week, we still maintain our hopes for a recovery. If Turkish mills had not bought scrap – even at decreased prices – we could have experienced a deeper crisis. And it looks like in the most-recent deals the price trend is stable.”
