Turkish mills are seen keeping their export offers unchanged for long steel products and resisting buyers’ lower bids amid firm scrap, notes Kallanish.

Scrap prices have stabilised at around $385/tonne cfr Turkey for European and $389/t cfr for US HMS 80:20. On Thursday, a deal was heard at $385/t for HMS 1&2 80:20 and $405/t cfr for bonus grade from the EU. This indicates a stabilisation in values, considering other European sales this week. Compared to last week, values are up $7/t. Another booking from the Baltic was heard at $383/t cfr for HMS 1&2 80:20.

On Thursday, Turkish mills’ official rebar quotes stood mostly at $590-600/t fob Turkey actual weight, and at $600-610/t fob for mesh-quality wire rod, unchanged from last week. Higher offers are also available from some producers.

While Turkish mills failed to reflect the increase in scrap prices in their quotes, they are seen resisting bids at below $590/t fob for rebar.

As Turkish mills have almost exhausted their wire rod quota in the EU, sales to the bloc have slowed this week. There were some inquiries from the EU and UK, but North African mills are seen offering more competitive prices, with quotes at around $570-575/t fob for rebar from Algeria and Egypt, although availability is limited in Algeria. There are also some ongoing inquiries for Turkish rebar from the Balkans.

Some small-lot rebar sales have been concluded to Yemen this week, at $590-595/t fob actual weight. A producer sold two lots at 3,000 and 4,000 tonnes respectively. There are also rumours about small-volume rebar sales to Israel, although these are not yet confirmed.

Overall demand and sales in both the domestic and export markets are far from being sufficient for Turkish mills, given Turkey’s large long steel production capacity at around 25 million tonnes/year for rebar and 6m t/y for wire rod. Mills are seen operating at a 53-55% utilisation rate.

In Turkey’s domestic market, insufficient demand has caused some mills to decrease their offer prices to $595-620/t ex-works. Market participants expect prices to rise due to the anticipation of energy tariff hikes and a weaker lira after the elections this weekend. However, financing issues have prevented buyers from replenishing their stocks and demand remains insufficient. Only mills that offered size varieties and discounts managed to sell some volumes in southern Turkey.