The Iraqi market for rebar still sees weak buying activity during Ramadan. Local traders buy the material in small lots only, as their stocks are high enough and consumers'' demand is slack. Besides, import quotations remain rather high, although they have moved in different directions in the past two weeks. As a result, the material is still scarcely booked. However, foreign suppliers expect the situation to improve after holidays, enabling them to lift prices.
In particular, Turkish suppliers cut rebar quotations by $15-20/t last week, but now they try to push through an increase. However, they have only lifted the upper end of the price range by $5/t so far, to $845-860/t CPT Baghdad. At the same time, small batches of the material have been purchased at $845/t CPT Baghdad, and Iraqi buyers plan to insist on that level further. Rebar from ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih has grown in price by $15/t over the past two weeks, to $825-830/t CPT Baghdad. For reference, the Turkish material is offered at levels by $20-30/t higher. Nevertheless, no deals have been reported so far, as Iraqi buyers try to bargain with the Ukrainian supplier for discounts.
Meanwhile, stockists'' prices for Ukrainian rebar have lost $20/t in two weeks on end-users’ slack demand, so the gap between them and prices from mills has shrunk to $30-35/t.
Under current conditions the local supplier has also been forced to cut prices, so its rebar is available at $830-845/t CPT Baghdad now, $15-25/t down from two weeks ago.
( Source: www.metalexpert-group.com )